Buta Singh (21 March 1934 – 2 January 2021) was an Indian politician and a senior leader of the

Indian National Congress 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 E ...

. He was the

Union Home Minister The Minister of Home Affairs (or simply, the Home Minister, short-form HM) is the head of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India. One of the senior-most officers in the Union Cabinet, the chief responsibility of the Home Minis ...

of India,

Governor of Bihar The governor of Bihar is a nominal head and representative of the President of India in the state of Bihar. The Governor is appointed by the President for a term of 5 years. Phagu Chauhan is the current governor of Bihar. Former President Zaki ...

and was chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes from 2007 to 2010.

Early life

Buta Singh was born on 21 March 1934 in

Mazhabi Sikh Mazhabi Sikh (also known as Mazbhabi, Mazbhi, Majhabhi or Majabhi) is a community from Northern India, especially Punjab region, who follow Sikhism. The word ''Mazhabi'' is derived from the Arabic term ''mazhab'' (Mazhab means religion or sect ...

family at Mustafapur,

Jalandhar district Jalandhar district is a district in Doaba region of the state of Punjab, India. District headquarters is Jalandhar city. Before the Partition of India, Jalandhar was also the headquarters of the Jalandhar Division, with constituent districts J ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. He was educated at

Lyallpur Khalsa College Lyallpur Khalsa College is a multi-faculty co-educational college located in Jalandhar, Punjab. The college is one of the biggest colleges in region in context of student strength, academic courses offered and co-curricular and sports achieveme ...

in Jalandhar, from where he was awarded a B.A. (Hons), and at Guru Nanak Khalsa College in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

, where he earned a M.A. Singh then gained a Ph.D. from

Bundelkhand University Bundelkhand University is a State university based in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1975, it has professional, technical and vocational study programmes along with facilities for research. Administration The chancellor of the univ ...

. He married Manjit Kaur in 1964; the couple had three children. He worked as journalist before entering politics. He fought his first elections as an

Akali Dal The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) ( translation: ''Supreme Akali Party'') is a centre-right sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Congress, being founded in 1920. Although there are ...

member and joined the

in the late 1960s at the time when that party was split.

Political career

Singh was first elected to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

in 1962, for the Moga constituency. He was subsequently elected to the 4th (from Ropar in 1967), 5th, 7th, 8th (from

Jalore Jalore () ( ISO 15919 : ''Jālora'' ), also known as '' Granite City'', is a city in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. It is the administrative headquarters of Jalore District. It has a river known as Jawai Nadi. Jalore lies to south of ...

), 10th (1991), 12th and 13th Lok Sabhas. He was involved with the Congress Party since

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian Anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India du ...

was Prime Minister and he was close to former Indian prime ministers

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 and was al ...

and

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 ...

. But he was first elected to the

Indian Parliament The Parliament of India (IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of t ...

from the Moga constituency as Akali Dal candidate, defeating his Congress opponent. He switched to Ropar constituency in 1967, this time as a Congress candidate, and was elected from there to Lok Sabha a couple of times. He became

General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

of the

All India Congress Committee The All India Congress Committee (AICC) is the presidium or the central decision-making assembly of the Indian National Congress. It is composed of members elected from state-level Pradesh Congress Committees and can have as many as a thousan ...

(AICC)

(1978–1980), Home Minister of India and later

(2004–2006). Other portfolios that he has held include those for railways, commerce, parliamentary affairs, sports, shipping, agriculture, communications and housing. He was chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (ranked as Cabinet Minister) from 2007 to 2010. He wrote a book ''Punjabi Speaking State – A Critical Analysis'' and a collection of articles on Punjabi literature and Sikh history. Indira Gandhi chose him to select a new party symbol when Congress was split. He was very closely involved with her in

Operation Blue Star Operation Blue Star was the codename of a military operation which was carried out by Indian security forces between 1 and 10 June 1984 in order to remove Damdami Taksal leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the building ...

and as a minister he oversaw reconstruction of the Golden Temple following that exercise. His name was also in the finalists for the post of

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murm ...

along with

Giani Zail Singh Giani Zail Singh (, born Jarnail Singh; 5 May 1916 – 25 December 1994) was an Indian politician from Punjab who served as the seventh president of India from 1982 to 1987. He was the first Sikh and the first person from a backward caste to bec ...

in the Indira era. He was also the chairperson of

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

organizing committee when the competition was held in India in 1982. He contested 2014 Lok Sabha election from Jalore (Lok Sabha constituency) as an independent, backed by Samajwadi Party, but he came third.

Controversies

In 1998, as Communications Minister he was indicted in the JMM bribery case, and forced to resign. As the Governor of Bihar, Singh's decision to recommend the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly in 2005 was sharply criticised by the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

. The court ruled that Singh had acted in haste and misled the federal cabinet because he did not want a particular party claiming to form the government, to come to power. Singh, however, claimed that the party was resorting to unfair means to secure support to form the government. On 26 January 2006 Singh sent a fax to

Abdul Kalam Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (; 15 October 193127 July 2015) was an Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied ...

offering to resign his post. The next day he left office and was replaced temporarily by West Bengal governor

Gopalkrishna Gandhi Gopalkrishna Devadas Gandhi (born 22 April 1945) is a former administrator and diplomat who served as the 22nd Governor of West Bengal serving from 2004 to 2009. He is the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji). As a former ...

Death

Singh died in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Hous ...

from complications of a

cerebral haemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

on 2 January 2021, at age 86.

Positions held

# 1962 : Elected to 3rd Lok Sabha, from Moga seat, as Akali Dal candidate # 1966–68 : Member, Public Accounts Committee. # 1967 : Re-elected to 4th Lok Sabha (2nd term) as Congress candidate,

Ropar (Lok Sabha constituency) Ropar or Rupar was a Lok Sabha constituency in Punjab. It was dissolved in 2008. Members of Parliament ^bypoll *2008 Onwards: Fatehgarh Sahib See also * Rupnagar (formerly known as Ropar) * Fatehgarh Sahib Lok Sabha constituency * List of Con ...

# 1971 : Re-elected to 5th Lok Sabha (3rd term), from

# 1971 : Chairman, Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes # 1973–74 : Convenor, All India Congress Committee (Indira) ICC(I) Harijan Cell. # 1974–76 : Union Deputy Minister, Railways. # 1976–77 : Union Deputy Minister, Commerce. # 1978–80 : General-Secretary, AICC(I). # 1980 : Re-elected to 7th Lok Sabha (4th term), from

# 1980–82 : Union Minister of State, Shipping and Transport. # 1982 : Union Minister of State, Supply and Rehabilitation (Independent Charge). # 1982–83 : Union Minister of State, Supply and Sports (Independent Charge). # 1983–84 : Union Cabinet Minister, Parliamentary Affairs, Sports and Works and Housing. # 1984 : Re-elected to 8th Lok Sabha (5th term), from Jalore (Lok Sabha constituency) # 1984–85 : Union Cabinet Minister, Agriculture and Rural Development. # 1985–86 : Union Cabinet Minister, Agriculture. # 1986–89 : Union Cabinet Minister, Home Affairs. # 1991 : Re-elected to 10th Lok Sabha (6th term), Jalore (Lok Sabha constituency) # 1994–95 : Chairman, Parliamentary Committee on Defence. # 1995–96 : Union Cabinet Minister, Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution. # 1998 : Re-elected to 12th Lok Sabha (7th term), Jalore (Lok Sabha constituency) # Mar–Apr. 1998: Union Cabinet Minister, Communications. # 1998–99 : Member, Committee on Subordinate Legislation and Member, Committee on Finance. # 1999 : Re-elected to 13th Lok Sabha (8th term), Jalore (Lok Sabha constituency) # 1999–2000 : Member, Committee of Privileges and Member, Committee on Communications. # 1999–2001 : Member, Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. # 2002–2003 : Chairman, Public Accounts Committee, Room No.-51, Parliament House, New Delhi. # 2004–2006 : Governor Of Bihar # 2006–2007 : Permanent Invitee Congress Working Committee # 2007–2010 : Chairman National Commission For Scheduled Castes (rank of Cabinet Minister)

References

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External links

Official biographical sketch on the Parliament of India website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Buta Governors of Bihar 1934 births 2021 deaths India MPs 1962–1967 India MPs 1967–1970 India MPs 1971–1977 India MPs 1980–1984 India MPs 1984–1989 India MPs 1991–1996 India MPs 1998–1999 India MPs 1999–2004 Lok Sabha members from Rajasthan Chairmans of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes Ministers of Internal Affairs of India Agriculture Ministers of India Members of the Cabinet of India United Progressive Alliance candidates in the 2014 Indian general election Indian National Congress politicians Shiromani Akali Dal politicians Lok Sabha members from Punjab, India People from Rupnagar district People from Jalore district Indian Sikhs