Harjit Singh Grewal

Harjit Singh Grewal is a senior Punjab leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Tribune described him in 2005 as the Punjab BJP’s general secretary and official spokesman, and in September 2024 as a member of the party’s national executive who had been with it for more than 35 years. In July 2026 the Centre named him Chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities.

Key moments

• 19 March 2005: as general secretary and spokesman, he accused the Congress and its agents of a “motivated propaganda campaign” against the SAD-BJP alliance over the release of Sikh youths held under TADA (The Tribune).
• The farmers’ protest near Delhi: UNI says he became widely known nationally because he repeatedly defended the Centre’s farm laws on television channels while public anger against the BJP ran high in Punjab.
• 29 April 2024: he criticised SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami at a press conference. Dhami had advised Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee members who had joined the BJP to resign. Grewal said Dhami should first explain his own interest in the Shiromani Akali Dal, which he called a family party, and said the BJP is not anti-Sikh (The Tribune, reporting his statements).
• 1 September 2024: after Mandi MP Kangana Ranaut’s remarks about the farmers’ protests, he said he had contacted the party high command and that her remarks were not the party’s ideology. He said becoming an MP does not make someone a leader (The Tribune).
• 16 July 2026: the Ministry of Minority Affairs notified his appointment under sections 3 and 4 of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, for three years. He succeeds Iqbal Singh Lalpura, whose term ended in April 2025, leaving the post vacant for more than a year.
• 21 July 2026: he took charge in New Delhi. He said the Commission would work for all minority communities and act independently, and would rely on facts and data. He said it “remains committed to addressing genuine grievances” (All India Radio).

How the appointment is read: Political experts quoted by UNI see it as a BJP move to win back Sikh voters ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections. That is their view, not an official reason.

What he is known for: He is one of the BJP’s best-known Punjab faces, and UNI ties his national profile to his defence of the farm laws. His three-year term at the Commission began in July 2026.