He led a flag satyagraha and formed a parallel government in Faridkot State which were called off only after the intervention of Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel.

Singh’s policies aimed to undercut the influence of the Shiromani Akali Dal party by championing Sikh religious causes.

[3] Although his formal education ended with matriculation, Singh trained to be a granthi and studied at the Shaheed Sikh Missionary College in Amritsar where he was given the title of giani as a mark of his knowledge of the scriptures.

The Mandal sought the establishment of an elected government in the princely state – a demand rejected by its ruler, Sir Harinder Singh Brar.

He piloted the Biswedar Abolition Ordinance that provided for the appropriation without compensation of land owned by the landlords and tenancy rights to the cultivators.

[35][36] From the outset Singh projected himself as a champion of the Sikh religion, in part, because he did not belong to the dominant Jat caste and also to counter the Akali Dal party.

[38] In response to their electoral setbacks, Akali Dal politicians gathered at Anandpur Sahib in October 1972 and passed a resolution demanding greater autonomy to Punjab and self-determination for the Sikhs.

[45] In 1974, he repatriated the remains of Udham Singh from the United Kingdom which were then taken in a procession to Punjab, cleverly utilising the media attention and popular interest in it to burnish his credentials.

[46][47] He was also responsible for getting the Department of Electronics to establish the Semiconductor Complex Limited at Mohali in 1974 overriding their preferred choice of Madras (now Chennai).

[52][53] In the general elections of 1977 that followed the Emergency, the Congress party for the first time failed to win even a single seat from Punjab.

He was suspected of involvement in the murders of the Nirankari guru Gurbachan Singh in April 1980 and of the newspaper magnate Lala Jagat Narain in September 1981.

Singh’s loyalty to the prime minister was another reason for his nomination as the Congress party was unsure of its prospects in the general elections scheduled for 1985.

Hans Raj Khanna, a former judge of the Supreme Court of India who had defended fundamental rights and championed the inviolability of the basic structure of the constitution during the Emergency and was subsequently overlooked for appointment as Chief Justice, became the opposition candidate.

[84][85][86] It was reported that Singh would walk down to the South Court of Rashtrapati Bhavan to receive her when she called on him, even opening her car door in breach of all protocol.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip arrived on a state visit in November 1983, as the guests of President Singh and stayed at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

[92] In June 1984, the Indian Army launched Operation Blue Star to neutralise Sikh militants based in the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar.

Singh was not appraised of these plans neither when Punjab was brought under President’s rule nor when Prime Minister Gandhi met him for a routine briefing the day before the operation was launched.

[98] In September, the Akal Takht, the highest temporal body in Sikhism, condemned Singh for his alleged role in the military operation and held him guilty of religious misconduct.

He was exonerated 24 days later by the Sikh high priests after he expressed contrition and sought forgiveness before the Akal Takht for the ‘unfortunate incidents’ that had happened there.

[99][95][100] In August 1984, Rashtrapati Bhavan became the venue of an unusual political gathering when N. T. Rama Rao, who had been dismissed as chief minister of Andhra Pradesh by the governor, met Singh with over 160 members of the Legislative Assembly.

[104][105] Her son Rajiv Gandhi and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee were in West Bengal campaigning for upcoming Assembly elections while Singh was on a state visit to North Yemen.

[116][117] Singh later admitted that his commitment to the Congress party and to the Indian Constitution were severely tested by these events but he chose to remain in his post.

Gandhi viewed Singh as a rustic parvenu whose actions were partly responsible for the imbroglio in the Punjab that had led to his mother’s assassination.

[125][123] Singh retaliated by subjecting all proposals sent to him to minute scrutiny, seeking explanations from the government on not formulating a policy on judicial appointments, questioning its television coverage policy and cautioning the governor of Andhra Pradesh, Kumudben Joshi, to desist from interfering in the state’s politics besides seeking an explanation from the Chief Election Commissioner of India about the delay in holding scheduled elections in the state of Haryana.

The bill, passed by both houses of Parliament, empowered central and state governments to intercept, inspect and detain any items in the post perceived to be a threat to national security.

As the Constitution places no time limit within which presidential assent is to be given to legislation sent to him, Singh decided to keep it in abeyance – thus effecting a pocket veto.

[135][136] As Singh’s tenure was drawing to a close, it was thought that such a move would lead to a second term in office for him with support from the opposition and members of the Congress party opposed to Gandhi.

[138] Singh, however, never acted on the plan and decided not to seek a second term as he failed to get the open support of the opposition and feared it could lead to an army takeover.

[139][140][141] Singh led state visits to Bahrain, Czechoslovakia, and Qatar in 1983; to Argentina, Mauritius, Mexico, North and South Yemen in 1984.

[146][147] Singh was severely injured in a road accident when his car collided with a truck at Kiratpur Sahib in the Ropar district of Punjab on 29 November 1994.