Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) is a Sikh Nationalist political party led by Simranjit Singh Mann, it is a splinter group of the Shiromani Akali Dal. They use 'Balti', the Punjabi term for bucket as their official election symbol. Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) was formed on 1 May 1994. The party has seen a resurgence in support after the deaths of Deep Sidhu and Sidhu Moose Wala who were supporters and seen as sympathetic to the cause of Simranjit Singh Mann. Their 2022 Lok Sabha victory after more than two decades has been viewed as a resurgence in Sikhism, and a political vacuum due to collapse of other traditional political parties in Punjab. The last major victory for Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) was in 1989 Lok Sabha elections where the party and their allies won 10 out of 13 seats from Punjab.
Simranjit Singh Mann is a former Indian Police Service officer and a Member of the Parliament in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India, representing the constituency of Sangrur since 2022. He is the president of the political party Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar). Mann has served three-times as an MP; once from Taran Tarn between 1989 and 1991, and twice from Sangrur between 1999-2004 and since 2022.
Bhagwant Singh Mann is an Indian politician, social worker, former comedian, singer and actor who is currently serving as the 17th Chief minister of Punjab since 2022. He represents the Dhuri Assembly constituency in the Punjab Legislative Assembly since 2022 and is also serving as the state convener of Aam Aadmi Party, Punjab since 2019. Previously, he was a member of the Lok Sabha from Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency from 2014 to 2022.
Jathedar Sukhdev Singh Babbar was the militant and co-leader of Babbar Khalsa (BK), a Sikh militant organization involved in the pursuit of creating a Sikh nation named as "Khalistan" and generally believed responsible for the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182, although Sukhdev was never named as being involved.. BK was founded by Talwinder Singh Parmar, himself, and Amarjit Kaur. He commanded BK continuously for 14 years until he was killed in 1992. He was a member of the AKJ.
Politics in reorganised present-day Punjab is dominated by mainly three parties – Indian National Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal). Since 1967, Chief Minister of Punjab has been predominantly from Jat Sikh community despite its 21 percent state population. Exceptions are Giani Zail Singh, the Chief Minister of Punjab from 17 March 1972 to 30 April 1977 belonging to Ramgarhia community that has population of 6 percent and is a part of significant OBC community having population of 31.3 percent in the state and Charanjit Singh Channi who held the position for 111 days from 20 September 2021 to 16 March 2022 and was from Scheduled Caste(Dalit) who have 32 percent population in the state. Other prominent party is Bahujan Samaj Party especially in Doaba region founded by Kanshi Ram of Rupnagar district. In 1992 BSP won 9 seats Vidhan Sabha elections. Also BSP won 3 lok sabha seats from Punjab in 1996 general elections and only Garhshanker seat in 1997 Vidhan Sabha elections. Communist parties too have some influence in the Malwa area. In the 2014 general elections, the first-time contesting Aam Aadmi Party got 4 out of 13 seats in Punjab by winning 34 of the total 117 assembly segments, coming second in 7, third in 73 and fourth in the rest 3 segments. The support for the Aam Aadmi Party increased later in Punjab. The current Government was elected in the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections and the AAP won 92 out of 117 Assembly seats with Bhagwant Mann as the Chief Minister. The Congress flows down to get only 18 seats.
Jagtar Singh Hawara is a high level member of Babbar Khalsa who is currently serving life imprisonment at Tihar Jail. He was convicted as a conspirator in the assassination of 12th Chief Minister of Punjab, Beant Singh.
The Ruchika Girhotra case involves the molestation of 14-year-old Ruchika Girhotra in 1990 by the Inspector General of Police Shambu in Haryana, India. After she made a complaint, the victim, her family, and her friends were systematically harassed by the police leading to her eventual suicide. On 22 December 2009, after 19 years, 40 adjournments, and more than 400 hearings, the court finally pronounced Rathore guilty under Section 354 IPC (molestation) and sentenced him to six months' imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000. The CBI had opposed Rathore's plea and had sought an enhancement of his sentence from six months to the maximum of two years after his conviction. Rejecting his appeal against his conviction by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court, Chandigarh District Court on 25 May sentenced the disgraced former police official to one-and-a-half years of rigorous imprisonment, enhancing his earlier six-month sentence and immediately taken into custody and taken to the Burail prison. On 11 November 2010, the Supreme Court granted bail to S.P.S. Rathore on the condition that he remain in Chandigarh. Recently, the Supreme Court of India upheld Rathore's conviction in molestation case but restricted the punishment to six months' jail already served by him considering his age.
Charanjit Singh Channi is an Indian politician who served as the 16th Chief Minister of Punjab. He is a member of the Indian National Congress. He was also Minister of Technical Education and Training in Second Amarinder Singh ministry and leader of the opposition in the Punjab Legislative Assembly. He was the first Dalit to become the CM of Punjab.
Dalvir Singh Khangura is former MLA from Dhuri, Sangrur District, Punjab. He got elected for the seat in the 2017 Punjab Legislative Assembly election. He is a politician in Indian National Congress. Dalvir Singh Khangura, known as "Goldy", was born on 24 September 1982 in a Jat Sikh family in Dhuri, District Sangrur, Punjab India. He has done his schooling from S.V.M., Dhuri. He later joined S.D. College, Chandigarh and did his Graduation and PGDCA.
Sukhbir Singh Badal is an Indian politician and the president of Shiromani Akali Dal, and is a member of Parliament from the Firozpur. He served as Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab from 2009 to 2017. He is the son of Parkash Singh Badal, who has served several times as Chief Minister of Punjab. Badal and his family have ownership stakes in an array of businesses.
The 2015 Guru Granth Sahib desecration refers to a series of desecration incidents of the Sikh Guru Guru Granth Sahib and subsequent protests that took place in Punjab, India in October 2015, although it is known as the 2015 Guru Granth Sahib desecration it started from 2014 and continues till 2021. The first incident of desecration was reported from Bargari, Faridkot district, where 110 torn Angs of the holy Book were found on 12 October. On the early morning hours of 14 October, two Sikhs were peacefully protesting and were shot dead by the police as the protesters were sitting in demonstration.
Ravinder Singh Dhull is a lawyer/politician of the State of Haryana, India. He is currently serving as Legal Advisor to Congress Legislative Party, Haryana headed by Leader of Opposition Haryana Chaudhary Bhupinder Singh Hooda, National Media Penalist Indian National Congress and State Spokesperson Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee. He was appointed to the post on 9 June 2021. He is former Additional Advocate General for the State of Haryana and remained posted in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He is former State Media Penalist for Bhartiya Janta Party, Haryana. Earlier he has served as State Spokesperson for the Indian National Lok Dal from August 2014 till June 2019. His father Parminder Singh Dhull served as two time Member of Legislative Assembly of Haryana from Julana constituency in Jind District. His grand father Chaudhary Dal Singh was a noted politician of the area and six time M.L.A. from District Jind. He resigned from the office of Advocate General Haryana during the 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest on 20 October 2020 in protest of the controversial three farmer bills being passed by the Parliament of India.
The arrest of Jagtar Singh Johal is a detainment that occurred in November 2017 in Punjab, India, after UK spy agencies tipped off their Indian counterparts about a key man, "Johal", who was currently in India.
The Kathua rape case involved the abduction, gang rape, and murder of an 8-year-old Muslim girl, Asifa Bano, by six men and a juvenile, in January 2018 in the Rasana village near Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir, India. A chargesheet for the case was filed, the accused were arrested and the trial began in Kathua on 16 April 2018. The victim belonged to the nomadic Bakarwal community. She disappeared for a week before her body was discovered by the villagers a kilometer away from the village. The incident made national news when charges were filed against eight men in April 2018. The arrests of the accused led to protests by the Panthers Party and other local groups, who sought justice for the victim. A protest in support of the accused men was attended by two ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party, both of whom later resigned. The gang rape and murder, as well as the support the accused received, sparked widespread outrage in India and world-wide.
Harpal Singh Cheema is an Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Dirba Assembly constituency located in Sangrur District, Punjab. In March 2022, he became first dalit to be a finance minister of Punjab. He joined the Aam Aadmi Party just before the 2017 Punjab Legislative Assembly election. He contested and won the election from Dirba Assembly constituency against a popular Punjabi Kabbadi player Gulzar Singh Moonak from Shiromani Akali Dal and Ajaib Singh Ratolan from Indian National Congress. In July 2018 he was appointed leader of opposition of Punjab Legislative Assembly.
On 14 September 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped in Hathras district, Uttar Pradesh, India, by four upper caste men. She died two weeks later in a Delhi hospital.
Nodeep Kaur is an Indian Dalit labour rights activist and member of the Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan (MAS), one of the unions of industrial workers actively supporting the 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest. Kaur was arrested from the Kundli Industrial Area by the Haryana Police on 12 January 2021 and had FIRs filed against her on a wide range of sections including unlawful assembly, assault and criminal force, trespass, extortion, snatching, criminal intimidation, and attempt to murder, based on statements made by a police inspector and the accountant of the company that had failed to pay protesting workers’ wages. She was allegedly beaten and sexually assaulted while in police custody. According to Kaur's lawyer, a medical report ordered after Kaur's arrest revealed wounds that pointed to a sexual assault.
Arvind Khanna is an Indian politician, business magnate and philanthropist. Khanna is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which he joined in January 2022. He is a senior leader of the BJP and a prominent figure in BJP Punjab. He is serving as vice-president of BJP Punjab since December 2022 and is a member of BJP Punjab's finance committee. Khanna is noted politically for his wealth and philanthropy. He served as the member of legislative assembly (MLA) from Sangrur from 2002 to 2007 and the MLA from Dhuri from 2012 to 2014. From 1998 to 2015, Khanna was a member of the Indian National Congress (INC). During his time in the INC, Khanna had served as General Secretary of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), as PPCC treasurer and was a member of the All India Congress Committee.
The 2021 Singhu border lynching refers to the lynching incident that occurred in the early hours of 15 October 2021 at Delhi's Singhu border, resulting in the death of Lakhbir Singh, a Dalit Sikh from Tarn Taran district of Punjab, India. The murder began with the victim's hand and a leg being chopped off, and later his body was hanged on a barricade near the farmers’ protest site. A Nihang Sikh group took responsibility for the lynching and killing, claiming that the man committed sacrilege of their holy scripture. A Nihang accepted his role in the murder, and surrendered on the same day. The second accused, who also belongs to the Nihang group, was arrested by the Amritsar police. After being taken into the police custody, the second accused claimed that he had surrendered before the police. Meanwhile, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) distanced itself from the alleged lynching of the man, and agreed to cooperate with the police in the investigation. The Bhim Army extended financial support for the family of the victim and demanded an impartial probe from the CBI. In addition, 15 Dalit organizations have also called for strict action against the culprits in the killing of Lakhbir Singh at the Singhu border. Meanwhile, the victim's family has complained to the "National Commission for Scheduled Castes" about the lack of support from the Punjab state government.
Narinder Kaur Bharaj is an Indian politician and lawyer, and the member of legislative assembly from Sangrur Assembly constituency. She defeated the incumbent cabinet minister Vijay Inder Singla of Indian National Congress in 2022 elections. Also, she became the youngest MLA in Punjab. She is also District youth president of Aam Aadmi Party.
