Parliament of India

The Parliament of India is the national legislature: the President, the Rajya Sabha (Council of States, sanctioned strength 245) and the Lok Sabha (House of the People, 543 elected members). Punjab sends 13 members to the Lok Sabha. Many of the laws that shaped Punjab and the Panth were made here.

Key moments

• 18 September 1966: Parliament passes the Punjab Reorganisation Act. It creates Haryana, moves hill areas to Himachal Pradesh and makes Chandigarh a Union Territory as the shared capital. The transfer takes effect on 1 November 1966.
• 1985 and 1987: Parliament passes the "Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act", known as TADA, and re-enacts it in 1987. In 1995 the government decided not to renew it, as Human Rights Watch reported.
• 30 March 1988: the Constitution (Fifty-ninth Amendment) Act lifts the one-year limit on President's rule for Punjab's proclamation of 11 May 1987. It also inserts Article 359A, under which an emergency could be declared for "internal disturbance" in Punjab, and under which the right to move the courts to enforce Article 21, life and personal liberty, could be suspended. The Punjab provisions were to end two years after the Act began, and the Sixty-third Amendment, in force on 6 January 1990, removed Article 359A.
• 1989: Simranjit Singh Mann wins Tarn Taran from jail with about 88 percent of the vote but never takes his seat, because he wanted to enter the House with a sword (The Tribune).
• 11 August 2005: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh apologises in the Rajya Sabha for the November 1984 massacre of Sikhs.
• July and August 2019: the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, passed by the Lok Sabha on 24 July and the Rajya Sabha on 2 August, lets the Centre designate individuals, not only organisations, as "terrorists". The original Act dates from 1967.
• September 2020: after the Lok Sabha passes the farm bills, the Rajya Sabha passes two of them on 20 September by voice vote amid uproar. Both Houses pass the repeal bill on 29 November 2021, the first day of the winter session.
• June 2024: two independents, Amritpal Singh and Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, win Punjab seats. Al Jazeera notes that Amritpal Singh won while held in detention under the National Security Act.

Where it stands today: After the 2024 election Punjab's 13 Lok Sabha seats are held by 7 Congress, 3 AAP, 1 Shiromani Akali Dal and 2 independent members, and none from the BJP (IndiaVotes).