She re-emerged on political arena after registering a win in the 2012 Assembly elections, but special CBI court in Patiala in March 2012 sentenced her to five-year imprisonment in connection with his daughter’s death case. (File)The first and the only woman to headed Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee as president, Jagir Kaur has had a political journey of over two decades marked by striking highs and lows.
A two-time Cabinet minister, Jagir Kaur could not contest 2017 Assembly elections because of her conviction by the special CBI court in Patiala in 2012 for conspiring to kidnap and cause her daughter’s miscarriage in 2000.
Her acquittal by Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday in the case is likely to bring 64-year-old Jagir Kaur back in the political spotlight even as petitioner Kamaljeet Singh said he would challenge the verdict in Supreme Court.
Kaur, who was a mathematics teacher before her foray into politics, had a meteoric rise after she joined Shiromani Akali Dal in 1996, contested SGPC elections and won. Soon after that she was inducted in the working committee of the party as member. She registered her first victory in Assembly elections from Bholath in 1997 Assembly elections in the state. A first time MLA, she was given a Cabinet berth in SAD-BJP government.
She was elevated to yet another orbit in March 1999, this time Panthic, when she was named president of apex representative body of Sikhs, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, after Akali stalwart Gurcharan Singh Tohra’s removal from the post following Tohra’s feud with then SAD president and then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. This was for the first time that any woman took over as SGPC chief. She resigned as minister to take over as SGPC president.
She was re-elected as SGPC president in annual election of office bearers of SGPC in November that year. But her stint as SGPC president ended a year later amid controversy involving death of her daughter in April 2000. In November 2000, Jagdev Singh Talwandi replaced her as SGPC chief in the annual election.
SAD fielded her again from Bholath in 2002 Assembly elections. She emerged victorious. Congress won the 2002 Assembly elections and formed the government. In 2004, Jagir Kaur was again back as SGPC chief for the second time. This time too her tenure lasted till November 2005.
In 2007, she suffered first major political jolt when she was defeated by Sukhpal Singh Khaira, a Congress nominee at that time who Kaur had defeated in previous two Assembly elections. In 2007, SAD-BJP returned to power, but having lost the election, Kaur found herself at the backseat.
She re-emerged on political arena after registering a win in the 2012 Assembly elections, but special CBI court in Patiala in March 2012 sentenced her to five-year imprisonment in connection with his daughter’s death case. Kaur had to resign as cabinet minister on moral grounds, 14 days after she was inducted in the cabinet by the SAD-BJP government.
After her conviction in 2012, Jagir Kaur was sent to jail – this was for the first time she went to jail in connection with the case after she had been out on bail for long during the trial. After conviction, on her request, she was taken to Kaurthala jail. She was out on bail by November that year.
In 2014, SAD named her as president of Istri Wing of Akali Dal. Kaur, who is one of the core committee members of SAD, could not contest 2017 Assembly elections because of her conviction by the Special CBI court and SAD eventually fielded her son-in-law Yuvraj Bhupinder Singh, who lost to Sukhpal Singh Khaira, the Aam Aadmi Party nominee from Bholath.
“I am thankful to God that I have been acquitted. People of my area and my party were always with me during the pain I suffered for long,” Kaur said on Tuesday while reacting on the verdict.
“I never took backseat, I always worked for the party. I will continue my services for the party,” she added.
