Balwant Singh
Ramuwalia
Balwant Singh Ramuwalia, presently Cabinet Minister in the U.P., was born on 15th March 1942 in
the house of S. Karnail Singh Paras (a well known Kavishar). Even during his student life, S. Ramuwalia
started taking interest in politics. In 1963 he had become the General Secretary of the Student Federation of
India. After completing his study, he focussed his interest on Sikh politics. Firstly he joined All India Sikh
Student Federation and was its President from 1968-72. Later he joined Akali Dal and remained its active
member for many years. He became Member of Parliament as an Akali candidate twice from Faridkot and
Sangrur. In 1966 he left Akali Dal and got elected himself for the Rajya Sabha it was during this period only
that he served as Union Minister for social welfare. After that, he formed his own political party named
‘Lok Bhalai Party’ which, ultimately he merged in Akali Dal in November 2011. In 2012 election Punjab
Assembly, he contested as an Akali from Mohali, but lost. After three years in 2015, he again left Akali
Dal and joined Samajvadi Party as the Cabinet Minister in Akhilesh Yadav’s Cabinet.
Thus, he has always
been an active politician remaining associated with the political parties which he considered as the most
appropriate for him. However, politics is not the only field in which he is active. He becomes a role-model
mainly because he takes interest and works with full zeal and energy in various other social and educational
activities also. For example he has been a member of Senate and syndicate of Punjabi University, a member
of Board of Indian Airlines and a member of various business and industry committees attached to the
various Ministries like Ministry of Industry and Ministry of External Affairs. Likewise, he has taken active
interest in promoting Punjabi language and culture and in this regard he has remained member of India
International Center, President Shiromani Punjabi Sabha and Chief Patron of International Punjabi Society.
He was awarded ‘Secular Punjabi of the Globe’ by the Indo-Canadian Association of Vancouver, Canada.
The activities which have endeared him most relate to his helping the Indians having problems in foreign
countries. For example, he helped around 40,000 people in the foreign jail for more than 20 years and got
them released and sent back to their homes. Similarly, thousands of persons were unable to come back to
their country as Government was not giving their Passports. He helped such people also. In Spain island, he
got those Punjabi settled who were turned out from that place. When he was Minister during the last decade
of 20th Century he got 514 Sikhs recruited in Police and after that batch of 1997-98, such recruitment has
not taken place. He also helped those truck and taxi drivers who were exploited by the Authorities at DelhiHaryana border. He has also helped those poor people in foreign countries who died there and whose kith
and kin wanted their bodies to be brought to India for last rites. For example when a Dhaliwal family wanted
their son Tirath Singh’s body to be brought to India from Australia, the family was helped by all means. His
daughter Amanjot Kaur helps him in all these activities. Particularly, she has been dealing with those cases
of women who had been deserted by their NRI husbands. When Ramuwalia became the Minister of Prison
in U.P., he made up his mind to help the Sikh prisoners in their release if they have already completed their
sentence periods. For example, Bhai Variyam Singh has already been released and the process of releasing
other Sikhs is stated to be under examination. All these matters related to social activities particularly Sewa
as he calls, along with his political positions make him a role-model for many people.