Ravneet Singh Bittu

Ravneet Singh Bittu is a politician from Punjab and a grandson of Chief Minister Beant Singh, who was killed in the bomb blast of 31 August 1995. The Tribune identified him in 2015 as a Congress MP and in 2025 as a Union Minister and senior BJP leader. Wikipedia, used here for his offices because no other source opened lists them, says he sat in the Lok Sabha for Anandpur Sahib from 2009 and for Ludhiana from 2014, joined the BJP on 24 March 2024 and was made Union Minister of State for Railways and for Food Processing Industries in June 2024. It gives July 2026 as the end of that term, and the sources opened do not say what office he holds now. In the 2024 general election he stood for the BJP at Ludhiana and lost to Amrinder Singh Raja Warring of the Congress by 20,942 votes (indiavotes).

On the release of the prisoners: The Tribune of 11 January 2015 quotes him saying that the Akali Dal (Badal) was "shedding crocodile tears" over Sikh prisoners. The same report summarises the Beant Singh family's position as wanting prisoners who were not involved in "terrorism" freed early, and those tied to Beant Singh's killing freed if they showed remorse; that is the report's summary of the family's position, not a direct quotation of him.

On 1 August 2015, The Tribune reported, police did not let him and his supporters enter Dayanand Medical College and Hospital in Ludhiana, where the fasting activist Bapu Surat Singh Khalsa was. He had gone to ask Khalsa to end the fast. He said Khalsa "must end fast to ease tension to a certain extent" and that if an untoward incident took place, Khalsa and his supporters would be held responsible.

On 9 July 2024, as a Union Minister, he said there was "pressure being created on the family by some forces" after the mother of Amritpal Singh spoke about her son, and that she had said "a very good thing" which should be supported (The Tribune).

The Tribune reported on 20 August 2025 that in a television interview on the previous Sunday he said he had decided not to oppose the release of the Bandi Singhs, having opposed it until then, and that he had spoken with his family and they were in agreement. The report notes that seven of the 14 Bandi Singhs still jailed were convicted over the assassination of his grandfather. Its headline linked the statement to a BJP effort to woo Sikh voters.

Key moments

• 11 January 2015: The Tribune reports his remark on the Akali Dal and the family's position.
• 1 August 2015: he is kept out of the Ludhiana hospital where Surat Singh Khalsa is fasting.
• August 2025: he says he will not oppose the release of the Bandi Singhs.

Known for: in this history, for his and his family's stand on freeing the prisoners convicted over his grandfather's assassination.