Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has opposed a proposed law that would drop the Congress president from the permanent membership of the trust running the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial, calling the move “completely wrong”.

The bill

The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday by Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel. It seeks to delete the reference to the president of the Indian National Congress as a trustee, with the stated aim of making the memorial trust apolitical. The previous government had introduced a similar measure, but it lapsed without being passed by Parliament.

The Chief Minister’s objection

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Amarinder Singh said the Congress had been linked to the memorial since the day it was set up, and that removing the party’s president from the trust was not right.

At present, the Prime Minister chairs the trust. Its other members are the Congress president, the Culture Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Punjab Governor and the Punjab Chief Minister.

Background

The Centre set up the memorial in 1951 to remember the unarmed people massacred on April 13, 1919, by British Indian Army troops commanded by Col Reginald Dyer.

Other issues

Amarinder Singh declined to comment when asked about State minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had not yet taken charge of the power department. In a letter to Punjab Governor V P Singh Badnore, the BJP has asked him to step in to end the stalemate between the two leaders, saying consumers were suffering because the department had gone unattended for more than a month.

See also: Indian National Congress | Punjab Vidhan Sabha members

Originally published on 10 July 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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