Prominent Sikh face, a vocal critic of pro-Khalistan hardliners and three-time MP from Punjab, Ravneet Singh Bittu (48), who lost the just concluded Lok Sabha elections from Ludhiana as the BJP nominee, was inducted into PM Narendra Narendra Modi’s council of ministers on Sunday.
He’s the grandson of Congress stalwart Beant Singh, who was assassinated by militants in a suicide bombing in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995, when he was the Chief Minister of Punjab.
During campaigning, Home Minister Amit Shah, at a rally in Ludhiana, said that Bittu has been his friend for the past five years.
"If Ludhiana sends him to the Lok Sabha as an MP, we will make him ‘bada aadmi’ (prominent personality)," the Home Minister had said.
In the high-pitched battle, Bittu, who switched over to the BJP weeks ahead of Lok Sabha elections, was defeated by Punjab Congress Chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, a three-time legislator from Gidderbaha of Muktsar district, with a margin of 20,942 votes.
Interestingly, when Bittu’s vehicle was stuck in a traffic jam in Delhi he had to literally run to attend the Prime Minister's address for the ministers to be included in the new Cabinet.
Bittu, who’s known for taking a tough stand against reviving the Khalistan movement, won three times on the trot on a Congress ticket from Anandpur Sahib (2009) and Ludhiana (2014 and 2019). He was once considered close to Rahul Gandhi.
Last year he exposed pro-Khalistani terrorists Hardeep Singh Nijjar and Gurpatwant Singh Pannun by alleging Nijjar was the right-hand of Jagtar Singh Hawara, a life convict in the Beant Singh’s assassination case. He said in the list of most wanted gangsters and terrorists eight out of 10 are sheltered by Canada.
Bittu, whose attendance in the outgoing Parliament was 90 per cent, has also openly opposed the release of Babbar Khalsa militant Balwant Singh Rajoana, one of the convicts in the assassination case of his grandfather. He had asked 367 questions in the Parliament, the highest among Punjab MPs.
He’s a resident of Kotla Afghana village in Payal in the Ludhiana district. His cousin and former Punjab minister Gurkirat Singh Kotli is still with the Congress.
Of Beant Singh’s three sons -- Swaranjit Singh, Tej Parkash Singh and Sukhwant Singh, Bittu is the son of the late Swaranjit Singh, who had died when Bittu was eight. Kotli is the son of Tej Parkash Singh.