Sardar Buta Singh
| Sardar Buta Singh | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 21, 1934 Mustafapur, Jalandhar district, Punjab |
| Political party | Indian National Congress |
| Spouse(s) | Sardarni Beant Singh |
| Religion | Sikh |
Buta Singh (born on 21 March 1934) was Chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC). He is an Indian National Congress leader.
Contents |
[edit] Political career
He has been eight times elected as a member of Lok Sabha in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 12th and 13th Lok Sabha. He is former Union Home Minister under Rajiv Gandhi's Government & more recently governor of Bihar state, India. He took office on November 5, 2004. He was the home minister of India during the early 1990s. He is a Sikh and was first elected to the Indian Parliament in 1962.
He has written a book "Punjabi Speaking State - A Critical Analysis" and a collection of articles on Punjabi Literature and Sikh History.
[edit] Controversies
In 2000, judge Ajit Bharioke of a special court convicted the former Prime Minister P.V. Narasim Rao and Buta Singh in the JMM bribery case.[1] The Central Bureau of Investigation had charged Rao, Buta Singh and others with bribing MPs belonging to the Janata Dal (Ajit) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) for voting in favour of the minority Congress government during the no-confidence motion against it in Lok Sabha in 1993. The decision was later overturned and both Rao and Buta Singh were cleared of the charges in 2002.[2] In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections Buta Singh was denied a ticket by the Congress Party to run for Lok Sabha. So he contested as an independent candidate from the Jalore constituency in Rajasthan although he was not successful.
As the Governor of Bihar, Buta Singh's controversial decision to recommend the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly in 2005 was sharply criticised by the Supreme Court. The court ruled that Mr. 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. Mr. Singh however claimed that the party was resorting to unfair means (read horse trading) to secure support to form the government. On January 26, 2006 Singh sent a fax to President Abdul Kalam offering to resign his post.[3] The next day he left office and was replaced by West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
In the latest controversy, his son Sarabjot Singh has been charged of demanding a hefty bribe — Rs 1 crore — exploiting the official position of his father Buta Singh, has put the focus on the Constitutional body NCSC, set up with the objective of serving the cause of the Scheduled Castes.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ "Rao, Buta convicted in JMM bribery case". http://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20000930/main1.htm.
- ^ "Ex-Indian PM cleared of bribery". BBC News. 2002-03-15. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1874500.stm. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
- ^ "Bihar governor offers resignation". BBC News. 2006-01-26. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4650474.stm. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
- ^ Buta Singh: Error by Commission
