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The political journey of former President Giani Zail Singh’s grandson Inderjeet Singh has come full circle. Four years after joining the BJP with much fanfare, he has returned to the Congress fold, calling it a “homecoming” and blaming the BJP for not addressing people’s concerns.
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The 63-year-old Inderjeet was born in Sandhwan village in Punjab’s Faridkot district that is also the birthplace of his grandfather, the first Sikh to become President. Politically active since 1992, Inderjeet’s career, however, has been uneven, shaped by both family legacy and personal choices.
Before politics, he tried his hand in cinema after wrestler-turned-actor Dara Singh spotted him at Rashtrapati Bhavan in the early 1980s. “Dara Singh ji had come to meet Giani ji and he (his grandfather) was busy in a meeting, so I received him. I too was fond of wrestling and had worked a lot on my physique. So, I interacted with Dara Singh while he was waiting to meet the President. He suggested I try films. I moved to Mumbai and remained there for a couple of years,” Inderjeet told The Indian Express. He acted in three films — Hindi movies Belagaam and Kasam Vardi Ki and Punjabi film Vairi — but success eluded him.
Politics beckoned in 1992 after Zail Singh’s nephew and former MLA Basant Singh lost from Anandpur Sahib on a Congress ticket to a BJP candidate despite an Akali boycott. “Giani ji called me back from Mumbai to be active in politics. He started making me meet politicians,” Inderjeet said.
In a blow for the family, the former President was involved in a road accident in Kiratpur Sahib in Punjab’s Ropar district in November 1994 and died the following month at PGIMER Hospital in Chandigarh.
By then, Inderjeet had developed close ties with Janata Dal leader, and subsequently Lok Janshakti Party founder, Ram Vilas Paswan. “Without formally joining his party, I remained associated with him. I worked as an advisor in the railway committee when he was the Railways Minister, in the telecommunication committee and other portfolios. I stayed connected with him in all the alliances he was part of,” he said. The association between the two continued till Paswan’s death in 2020.
Inderjeet’s formal entry into politics took place in September 2021, at the peak of the farmers’ protests against three central agrarian laws, when he joined politics in the presence of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. “I was an actor earlier, but my grandfather introduced me to leaders such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani and insisted that I enter politics,” he said at the time, calling his move the fulfilment of Zail Singh’s wish.
He also accused the Congress of not treating his grandfather with respect. “The Congress did not behave properly with my grandfather. His wish has been fulfilled today. He wanted me to be in the BJP.”
That day, he even dropped a bombshell by questioning the circumstances of his grandfather’s death, saying the 1994 accident remained a mystery. “I cannot say whether it was truly an accident or something orchestrated,” he said.
Asked about it following his return to the Congress on August 14, Inderjeet clarified, “I had not pointed towards any political party but raised questions about the inquiry into the accident and why Gianiji was not shifted to a Delhi hospital in time.”
The BJP never gave him a significant role in Punjab despite his lineage and his position as a prominent face from the Ramgarhia Sikh community, which is categorised as an Other Backward Class (OBC). “After joining the BJP, I wasn’t given any portfolio in the party. I felt they just used me as a Sikh face joining the party during the farmers’ agitation. Later, talks were on to give me a chance to contest the 2022 Vidhan Sabha polls and 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Ludhiana, but I wasn’t given any chance,” Inderjeet said.
While his political career did not quite take off, Inderjeet, who has been living in Khanna in Ludhiana district for the past 15 years, has been active in social organisations such as the Vishvkarma Samaj and Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh. Following his return to the Congress, which he termed his “ghar wapsi (homecoming)”, Inderjeet accused the BJP of using the backward classes for optics and doing “anything substantive for their welfare”.
“The country is facing many serious challenges, including inflation and poor economic conditions. Under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, the Congress is fighting for social justice, and I want to be part of this struggle,” he said at his reinduction in New Delhi, adding that the Leader of the Opposition’s “commitment to OBCs” had impressed him.
As he tries to get his political career going again, for Inderjeet Singh, this is a second chance to reclaim space in the Congress, the party where his family’s legacy was built.
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