Barjinder Singh Hamdard

Barjinder Singh Hamdard heads the Ajit group, publisher of the Punjabi daily Ajit from Jalandhar. Newslaundry describes him as owner and editor-in-chief and The Tribune as managing editor. He is the son of the Punjabi journalist Sadhu Singh Hamdard, who edited Ajit from 1947 to 1984, and has led the paper since 1984. Ajit began in 1941 as an Urdu weekly at the Shaheed Sikh Missionary College in Amritsar and moved to Jalandhar after Partition. Newslaundry, quoting The Indian Express, says the paper commands considerable influence in rural Punjab and that political players have long courted its owners. The same report describes him as a former Rajya Sabha member, a recipient of the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, and long close to the Akali Dal leadership, especially the late Parkash Singh Badal.

Key moments

• March 1999 to March 2000: elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha as an Independent backed by the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal and BJP. He resigned in March 2000, saying his work as an editor left him unable to give the House his time (The Tribune).
• 6 December 2023: named to the five member panel formed by Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh and led by SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami. Its task was to press the Centre to act on the notification to commute Balwant Singh Rajoana's death sentence and to release Sikh prisoners. The other members were Harmeet Singh Kalka, Virsa Singh Valtoha and Rajoana's sister Kamaldeep Kaur. The Akal Takht set a deadline of 31 December 2023. On 1 January 2024 the SGPC said its efforts to reach the Centre's top offices had so far failed and that it was in continuous correspondence with the Prime Minister's Office.
• May to July 2024: after the Vigilance Bureau at Jalandhar registered a case of cheating and corruption over the Jang-e-Azadi Memorial, the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed his arrest on 31 May and issued notice to the state and the CBI. Hamdard said he was being wrongly drawn in and that the case was meant to pressure him into publishing paid news and advertisements. On 15 July the Supreme Court declined to disturb the stay. These are allegations in a pending case; no finding is reported.
• July 2024: Newslaundry, citing The Indian Express, reported that Akali Dal leaders loyal to Sukhbir Singh Badal believed Hamdard backed the rebels' demand to replace him. The rebel camp denied he had any role, and Hamdard was unavailable for comment.

Why he appears in this record. Newslaundry's July 2024 report framed him as an editor whose influence reaches into Akali politics, and his name is on the 2023 Akal Takht panel on Rajoana and the Bandi Singhs, whose own deadline passed without result.