Giani Zail Singh

Giani Zail Singh was the seventh President of India, from 1982 to 1987, and the first Sikh to hold the office. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says he was born on 5 May 1916 at Sandhwan, a village near Kot Kapura in the princely state of Faridkot, the son of the village carpenter. His religious training at the Shahid Sikh Missionary College in Amritsar earned him the title Giani. He sat in Rashtrapati Bhavan through both Operation Blue Star and the November 1984 pogrom, and his record in those events is contested.

Key moments

• Before 1947: he is the principal architect of the people's revolt against the Raja of Faridkot and bears the brunt of the Raja's anger (Encyclopaedia of Sikhism).
• 1949 to 1962: revenue minister in the PEPSU government in 1949, agriculture minister from 23 May 1951, and a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1956 to 1962.
• 1972 to 1977: Chief Minister of Punjab. On 14 January 1980 he joins Indira Gandhi's cabinet as Union Home Minister, and in 1982 he is chosen for the presidency. The Encyclopaedia says the Akalis and the Communists supported his election.
• June 1984: Operation Blue Star. KC Singh, his former aide, wrote in The Tribune that he was not consulted beforehand and was briefed only once the operation was under way, and that he wanted to resign but judged that it would inflame the crisis. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says the Akal Takht charged him as tankhaiya after the army action. He appeared before the Sikh clergy to seek atonement, told them that as constitutional head he had no active role in ordering the army in, and his explanation was accepted.
• 31 October to 3 November 1984: he was in North Yemen when Indira Gandhi was shot. His press secretary, Tarlochan Singh, told the Nanavati Commission that the party reached Delhi at about 4.30 pm and that a crowd attacked the President's cars near AIIMS. He also said that the President telephoned the Lieutenant Governor and told him to take all possible measures, said that army help should be called if the situation was so bad, and complained to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister.
• Other witnesses gave the commission a more helpless picture. Patwant Singh said that on the morning of 1 November the President told his delegation he had no power to intervene. Vijay Kumar Malhotra said the President told him he was helpless. The commission's conclusions on the officials responsible name the Home Minister, the Lieutenant Governor and the Police Commissioner, and do not discuss the President.
• 1986 to 1987: his relations with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi sour. In 1986 he withheld assent from the Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill, a pocket veto (Wikipedia). KC Singh calls it a misconceived bill proposing censorship.
• 29 November 1994: his car met a serious accident while he was on a pilgrimage to Sri Keshgarh Sahib. He died at the PGI in Chandigarh on 25 December 1994.

Assessments differ. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism's entry, written by Hari Jaisingh, says that as Chief Minister, Home Minister and President he virtually set the tone for Punjab with the aim of making the Akalis irrelevant, that he more often than not played with fire, and that it was presumed, and rightly so, that the Bhindranwale factor was part of his game plan to promote his political goals. It also says his total loyalty to the Nehru Gandhi family helped carry him from a mud house to Rashtrapati Bhavan, and calls his life the success story of a common man. KC Singh describes a President kept out of decisions who nonetheless asserted his office in 1987.

What he is remembered for: the first Sikh President of India, who rose from a carpenter's household in a princely state, and a 1984 record that Sikhs, and the sources, read very differently.