Dr Baldev Prakash

Dr Baldev Prakash led the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in Punjab through the years of the Punjabi Suba struggle and its aftermath. Khushwant Singh calls him President of the provincial Punjab unit of the Jan Sangh, a party he describes as dominated by Punjabi Hindus at the time. Wikipedia says he headed the state unit from 1964 to 1974, sat in the Punjab Assembly from 1957 to 1969 and again from 1974 to 1977, and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Amritsar in 1977. Wikipedia gives two different birth years for him, 1908 and 1922, and his death as 1992.

Key moments

• 1966: when the Congress Working Committee accepted the demand for a Punjabi-speaking state, the Jan Sangh condemned the decision as a blow to the unity and integration of the country. Khushwant Singh counts Baldev Prakash among the most vociferous opponents of the Suba, with Professor Balraj Madhok, and says the party organised mass demonstrations. He adds that there was looting, arson and bloodshed in many Punjab towns, notably Panipat, but that the counter-Suba agitation was very short.
• March 1967: Khushwant Singh says a United Front of Akalis, Jan Sangh and Communists won 53 of the 104 seats in February and chose Gurnam Singh as its leader. Khushwant Singh notes that Baldev Prakash, until recently one of the most virulent opponents of the Suba, was among Gurnam Singh's ministers. Wikipedia lists him as Finance Minister.
• February 1969: he lost his seat in the election in which the Jan Sangh won eight seats. Khushwant Singh says Sant Fateh Singh had won the Jan Sangh's support by promising no more changes of boundaries and acknowledging Hindi as the national language and the link language for Punjab.
• 29 to 30 January 1970: after Indira Gandhi's award gave Chandigarh to Punjab, J.S. Grewal says the All-Parties Action Committee, chaired by Baldev Prakash, called the award unjust and illogical but asked Sant Fateh Singh to give up his fast because Chandigarh had gone to Punjab. Sant Fateh Singh broke his fast on 30 January.

Remembered for: the turn from fierce opponent of the Punjabi Suba to minister in an Akali-led cabinet, and for chairing the committee that, in January 1970, asked Sant Fateh Singh to end his fast.