Raja Rao Birender Singh (20 February 1921 – 30 September 2009) was a King of erstwhile state of Haryana and an
Indian politician. He served first as a minister in the state government of
Punjab and then as
Chief Minister of Haryana
The Chief Minister of Haryana is the chief executive of the Indian state of Haryana. As per the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elect ...
from 24 March 1967 - 2 November 1967, and also served as a minister in
Punjab state,
Haryana state and the
Union cabinet. He also served as the second speaker (first male speaker) of
Haryana state assembly in 1967. He coined an Indian political vocabulary
Aya Ram, Gaya Ram to describe the practice of frequently floor-crossing by legislature.
Early life
Rao was born in 1921 and hails from
Ahir
Ahir or Aheer are a community of traditionally non-elite pastoralists in India, most members of which identify as being of the Indian Yadav community because they consider the two terms to be synonymous. The Ahirs are variously described as a ...
Family of
Rewari
Rewari is a city and a Municipal Council in Rewari district in the Indian state of Haryana. King of Rewari is Rao Onkar Singh.It is located in south-west Haryana around 82 km from Delhi ,
Punjab Province (British India),
Haryana">ow
Haryanain
British India. He was adopted by Yaduvanshi Ahir personality (King of Rewari state), Rao Balbir Singh. His family is directly descended from
Raja Rao Tularam Singh.
Career
East Punjab
The years that Birendra Singh spent at St. Stephen's college were the early years of India's independence. The college was situated in
New Delhi, the very hub of political activity, and Birendra Singh was drawn to politics by the environment. The first elections in free India were held in 1952 and Birendra Singh contested as an independent candidate from his native Ahirwal region, of which the city of
Rewari
Rewari is a city and a Municipal Council in Rewari district in the Indian state of Haryana. King of Rewari is Rao Onkar Singh.It is located in south-west Haryana around 82 km from Delhi is the urban center. He lost that election because there were many twists and turns of the politics in the Ahirwal region.
Birendra Singh then joined the
Congress Party
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
. Rather than contest elections to the State Legislative Assembly, he got nominated to the State Legislative Council, which is the upper house of the state legislature. His clipped accent and very progressive views were admired by Nehru and many. His royal background and leadership skills helped Nehru in dealing with more recalcitrant royals from the princely states. Thus, Birendra Singh became a member of the State Legislature of the Indian state of undivided Punjab, known informally as
East Punjab, without winning an election. He would serve as a nominated member for two successive terms (a total of 12 years) until 1966. During these years, he was made a minister in the
Pratap Singh Kairon
Partap Singh Kairon (1 October 1901 – 6 February 1965)
was the Chief Minister of the Punjab province (then comprising Punjab, Haryana and part of Himachal Pradesh), and is widely acknowledged as the architect of post-Independence Punjab Provi ...
government and held charge, at various times, of several important ministries like
PWD
In Unix-like and some other operating systems, the pwd command (''print working directory'') writes the full pathname of the current working directory to the standard output.
Implementations
Multics had a pwd command (which was a short name of ...
, Irrigation, Power, Revenue and Consolidation, etc.
Creation of Haryana
When India became independent in 1947, the old province of
Punjab was
partitioned and
East Punjab was retained by
India. Several
Princely states located on the plains of East Punjab were merged to create the state of
PEPSU. Several other princely states in the hills of East Punjab were similarly merged to create the Chief Commissioners' Province of
Himachal
Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...
. The portion which had been directly ruled by the British (rather than by the Maharajas of various princely states) became a third, separate state and received the name
Punjab. The Ahirwal region and
Rewari
Rewari is a city and a Municipal Council in Rewari district in the Indian state of Haryana. King of Rewari is Rao Onkar Singh.It is located in south-west Haryana around 82 km from Delhi lay within this state of
Punjab (India)
Punjab (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the States and union territories of India, Indian states of Himachal ...
, and Birendra Singh was a minister in this state. In the period 1956–66, the three political entities described above were merged and de-merged so that finally, in 1966, the political map of the region as it stands today emerged.
The final step in this process of re-organization was the separation of the
Hindi-speaking areas of Punjab into the new state of
Haryana, and the creation of the
Union Territory of
Chandigarh to serve as the common capital of both states. This was accomplished after some acrimony and political maneuvering. Rao Birendra Singh played a prominent role in this process of division. He did so because Ahirwal/
Rewari
Rewari is a city and a Municipal Council in Rewari district in the Indian state of Haryana. King of Rewari is Rao Onkar Singh.It is located in south-west Haryana around 82 km from Delhi was a Hindi-speaking area in the near vicinity of
Delhi and he felt that the Hindi-speaking people of undivided Punjab were not getting their just due in the political dispensation. Therefore, beginning 1962, he spearheaded the campaign for division and achieved success when the state of Haryana was born in November 1966.
Defection from Congress
After the formation of Haryana in November 1966, Bhagwat Dayal Sharma became Haryana's first Chief Minister, and Birendra Singh was elected the first speaker of the Haryana assembly which was a spin-off from the Punjab Assembly. The first-ever poll to Haryana Vidhan Sabha was held in March 1967. Birender Singh was elected a member of the
Haryana Legislative Assembly
The Haryana Legislative Assembly or the Haryana Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral state legislature of Haryana state in India.
The seat of the Vidhan Sabha is at Chandigarh, the capital of the state. The Vidhan Sabha comprises 90 Members of L ...
from the
Pataudi
Pataudi is a town and one of the 4 sub-divisions of Gurugram district, in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Haryana, within the boundaries of the National Capital Region of India. Ahirs/Yadav dominate the area. It is located f ...
assembly constituency as Congress Party's candidate. However, he established the
Vishal Haryana Party
Vishal Haryana Party (translation:Greater Haryana Party) was a political party in the Indian state of Haryana, led by Rao Birender Singh. It merged with Congress (I)
Indian National Congress (Requisitionists) was created in 1969; it was creat ...
immediately by defecting from Congress with many MLAs. He was appointed Chief Minister of Haryana on 24March 1967, replacing
Bhagwat Dayal Sharma
Bhagwat Dayal Sharma (26 January 1918 – 22 February 1993), popularly known as Panditji, was the first Chief Minister of the Indian state of Haryana and later Governor of Odisha and Madhya Pradesh from 30 April 1980 to 14 May 1984. He is one o ...
with his newly formed VHP assuming power.
But the assembly was dissolved, and Haryana placed under President's rule, in November 1967. Congress won the Vidhan Sabha election in 1968 and Bansi Lal became Chief Minister. Birender Singh's VHP came creditable second to Congress in the election.
He was elected to the
5th Lok Sabha
List of Members of the 5th Lok Sabha, ( 15 March 1971 — 18 January 1977) elected February–March 1971.The term of the House was extended two times by one year at a time. However, the House was dissolved after having been in existence for a ...
in 1971 from the
Mahendragarh
Mahendragarh is a city and a municipal committee in Mahendragarh district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is from Gurgaon and comes under National Capital Region (India).
Etymology
Earlier named ''kanaud'', in early 1860s it was renamed ...
on the Vishal Haryana Party ticket.
Later career
In September 1978 he merged this party with the Congress. In 1980, he was re-elected to the
7th Lok Sabha and he played a prominent role in the formation of the Congress Government in the centre. He served in
Ninth Cabinet of India as Cabinet
Minister of Agriculture (India), Food, Rural development, Irrigation, and Civil supply. In 1984, he was re-elected to the
8th Lok Sabha from
Mahendragarh (Lok Sabha constituency)
Mahendragarh Lok Sabha constituency was a Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituency in Haryana state in northern India till 2008.
Assembly segments
Mahendragarh Lok Sabha constituency comprised the following Vidhan Sabha (legislative assembly) segm ...
and became a part of the
10th ministry of India under prime minister
Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...
. He later resigned from both the Congress party and the Lok Sabha in 1989 on the issue of
Bofors scandal. He joined Janata Dal and was elected to 9th Loksabha in 1989, and became Cabinet minister in the Chander Shekhar's Govt. He left active politics after 1996. Rao Birender Singh died on 30 September 2009 in the age of 89.
Army career
Rao Birender Singh also enrolled in the
Territorial Army during the
Second World War.
* In 1947, he resigned from the Army as a
Captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
. He came to Rampura and took all the movable and immovable property of Rao Balbir Singh in his possession.
* In the batch of 1949–50, he was selected for
Indian Police Service but he did not join that service.
* Again in 1950 to 1951, he joined the
Territorial Army as a
Commissioned Officer
An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service.
Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent context ...
.
Contribution to Rewari
By his efforts, Rewari was made a separate district in 1989. The ruling government was of Chaudhary Om Prakash Chautala who was the Chief Minister.
Education and welfare of Ahirwal areas
Apart from his political service to the Nation Rao Birender Singh also served the backward areas of Ahirwal by establishing many educational institutions like
Ahir College Rewari
Ahir College Rewari is a college in Rewari, Haryana, India. It was established before India's independence. At that time Rewari was the only education hub. The Department of Science of Ahir College Rewari is also notable, in particular for S ...
, RBS School-Rewari, Rao Tularam School- Rewari, Rao Tularam Technical College-
Delhi. He is the founder of RBS College of Education- Rampura, Rewari.
Death
He died of
cardiac arrest in
Gurgaon
Gurgaon (pronunciation: ʊɽɡãːw, officially named Gurugram (pronunciation: ʊɾʊɡɾaːm, is a city located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. It is situated near the Delhi–Haryana border, about southwest of the nationa ...
on 30 September 2009.
See also
*
List of Rao rulers of Rewari
References
External Notes
* Dr. Ravindra Singh Yadav & Vijaypal, 1857 ki kranti k purodha: Rao Raja Tularam, 2013, Punit Publication Jaipur,
* Krantidoot Rao Raja Tularam, 1999, Engg. Anil Yadav, Sarita Book House, Delhi.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Birender
1921 births
2009 deaths
India MPs 1971–1977
India MPs 1980–1984
India MPs 1984–1989
India MPs 1989–1991
Chief Ministers of Haryana
Haryana MLAs 1968–1972
Speakers of the Haryana Legislative Assembly
Lok Sabha members from Haryana
People from Rewari district
Leaders of the Opposition in Haryana
Agriculture Ministers of India
Indian National Congress politicians
Janata Dal politicians
Vishal Haryana Party politicians