Coalition instability

Who: Justice Gurnam Singh of the Akali Dal (Sant Fateh Singh group), a retired High Court judge who headed Punjab's first non-Congress ministry, and Lachhman Singh Gill, his own minister for education and revenue, who brought it down.

What: The February 1967 election, the first after Punjab was cut down in 1966, gave Congress 48 of the 104 seats, short of a majority. On 4 March at Khanna, seven parties and independents formed the People's United Front: the Akali Dal (24 seats), the Jana Sangh (9), the CPI (5), the CPI(M) (3) and others. Gurnam Singh took office on 8 March. The Tribune called it unique, because both the Left and the Right supported it.

In April, Gill joined Harcharan Singh Hudiara to form a separate group, which had grown to 19 members by November. On 22 November 1967 Gill pledged his support to Congress and the ministry resigned the same day; the Governor asked Gurnam Singh to carry on until another arrangement was found. Congress chose to back Gill rather than form its own ministry, and he was sworn in on 25 November. His government passed the bill making Punjabi the official language up to the secretariat level (19 December, assented to on 29 December). Congress withdrew its support on 20 August 1968, and President's rule began on 23 August. The mid-term election of February 1969 brought Gurnam Singh back at the head of a United Front ministry, which lasted until Parkash Singh Badal's first ministry in March 1970.

Where: Chandigarh, capital of the reorganised Punjab.

Why it mattered: Between March 1967 and March 1970 Punjab had four ministries and about six months of President's rule. The Tribune's later profile of Gurnam Singh puts the fall down to political instability and dissension inside the Akali ranks, including his estrangement from Sant Fateh Singh, and says Indira Gandhi's Congress helped to bring the government down.