Bhim Singh (17 August 1941 – 31 May 2022) was an Indian politician, activist, lawyer and author. He was executive chairman of State Legal Aid Committee, founded by Chief Justice Bhagwati, for over 40 years from 1982 and freed hundreds of prisoners in India for free. He was the founder, president and chief patron of the socialist and secular Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP). Singh was Panthers Party chairman for 30 years from 1982 to 2012, chief patron from 2012-2021, and president from 14 February 2021 – 31 May 2022. In effect with over 40 years of controlling leadership, he was India's longest serving political party leader, and one of the longest serving leaders in the world.
Singh was an elected member of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly from 1977 until 1987, from Chenani-Ghordi (Udhampur). As party leader, he contested the 1988 Udhampur by-election to the Lok Sabha. Despite leading by over 30,000 votes at the end of the count, he was declared to have lost in a repoll, and alleged rigging by the coalition.J&K: Rigging charges against NC-Congress(I) coalition begin to pour in from Udhampur, India Today, 15 August 1988. "He was leading by more than 33,000 votes over his Congress(I) rival, Mohammed Ayub Khan, after the counting in 12 of the 15 assembly segments. But when the ballots were taken up in the remaining three segments - all in remote hill areas - he began to lose his entire lead."Mohd. Ayub Khan v. Prof. Bhim Singh And Others, Supreme Court Of India (Mar 14, 1996), casemine.com, retrieved 18 January 2022. Singh had gone on hunger strike along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee against the Election Commission decision, in the poll, and brought the case before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, that overturned the result.
Following which, he was nominated twice by Prime Ministers of India, Narasimha Rao, and Manmohan Singh as member of the National Integration Council in 1991 and 2008.
In 1985, in a landmark hearing, Singh was awarded fifty thousand rupees by the Supreme Court of India for his false imprisonment, after being suspended as a Member of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. In 2017, Singh defeated the government of India in the Supreme Court, enabling bar council elections to be held in Jammu and Kashmir for the very first time, in accordance to the Advocates Act 1961.
Prior to quitting the then ruling Congress party, he had reached its highest ranks. In 1973 he was appointed as president of the Youth Congress in Jammu and Kashmir by then prime minister Indira Gandhi, then served in 1977 as vice president of Indian Youth Congress, and finally as a general secretary for the All India Congress Committee.
In 1996, the party was notable in moving the Supreme Court and the Election Commission to return the democratic process to militancy-torn Jammu and Kashmir, when elections were held again in the state after a nine years hiatus.
Singh had survived an assassination attempt by the senior superintendent of police, while leading the Jammu student protests of 1966. He was known as Sher-e-Jammu (Lion of Jammu).
From 1967 to 1973 he travelled to 150 countries mostly by motorbike. His book documenting the journey, "Peace Mission Around the World on Motorcycle (Vol. II)", was released by Dr. Karan Singh, the first Sadr-i-Riyasat (President) of Jammu and Kashmir.
At times, he was criticized for his long standing friendships and legal counsel to socialist dictators worldwide.
In the 2002 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative assembly elections, the Panthers Party under Bhim Singh's leadership won all seats in its strong hold, the Udhampur district, and provided two cabinet ministers as part of a ruling coalition government along with PDP and Congress party. Until his death, he was reported as a potential candidate for the 2022 Indian vice presidential election and the presidential election.
Early life
Bhim Singh was born Kunwar (Prince) Bhim Singh on 17 August 1941 in Bhugterian, Ramnagar in the Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir during the British Raj of India. His father was Thakur (Prince) Birbal Singh, a serviceman who served the Allies of World War II and later the Indian Army post-independence. Bhim Singh was the great-grandson of celebrated General Zorawar Singh, referred to by historians as the “Napoleon of India,” for his 19th century conquests of Ladakh, Baltistan, Skardu and the heartlands of Tibet.
In 1951, Bhim Singh's father had thousands of acres of land in Ramnagar forcibly taken with no compensation by the government of prime minister Sheikh Abdullah, leaving he and his eleven other siblings to starve in poverty as revenge against the Dogra dynasty, whose ruler had previously imprisoned prime minister Abdullah.
He was first sent to prison in 1953 while still a student after he had thrown confectionery at prime minister Abdullah during a visit to his school by him. At the time Bhim Singh's father Thakur Birbal was rallying against the government's land reforms in Jammu with Prem Nath Dogra and his anti-Abdullah Jammu Praja Parishad party.
As a college student Bhim Singh was a political activist going on hunger strike as early as 1959. In 1961, Bhim Singh was arrested following the death of Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir in April 1961. He had led thousands of students from GGM Science College Jammu, in protest against ex Crown Prince Karan Singh and prime minister Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, who had refused to fly the flag at half mast. Bhim Singh had led the college students to capture the Secretariat building, and climbed the roof, to fly the flag at half mast in honour of his deceased king. Bhim Singh managed to tear down the Jammu and Kashmir flag while armed police fired live ammunition at him. In the aftermath Bhim Singh was arrested by the deputy inspector general of police, and imprisoned in Katua and later Reasi jails. He was imprisoned for over six months from 1961 to 1962 in Jammu Central Jail, where he shared a jail cell with Sheikh Nazir the future general secretary of the National Conference party.
Assassination attempt in Jammu protests, 1966 Bhim Singh was again arrested in 1966 for leading thousands of students in protest while president of the Jammu and Kashmir Students Congress. During the protests of October 1966, that called for an establishment of a university in Jammu four students were killed and fifty-three injured. On 17 October 1966, Brij Mohan, Subhash Chandra and Gulshan Handa died in protests on the G.G.M. Science College site in Jammu. While the senior superintendent of police shot student leader Gurcharan Singh on 18 October, at a students march in Kanak Mandi, Jammu. The superintendent had aimed for Bhim Singh but M.P. Khosla, the future chief secretary of Jammu and Kashmir, had intervened to save Bhim Singh's life. Later Bhim Singh escaped curfew to visit and appeal to prime minister Indira Gandhi in New Delhi. Gandhi set up an inquiry into the affair under Pranab Mukherjee, the future president of India, that found several government and police officials responsible for the deaths. University of Jammu was subsequently opened in 1969.
World tour on motorbike Soon after he left India to travel the world from 1967 to 1973. Mostly by the way of motorbike he managed to visit more than a 150 countries. During his travels he was recorded by the Nigerian Times in 1970, as the first person to cross the Sahara Desert on motorcycle from Tan-Tan, Morocco to Senegal through Spanish Sahara and Mauritania. In Chile he was personally received by its then President Salvador Allende, and in the Middle East he met with Yasir Arafat who later accepted Bhim Singh's invitation to India.
His book documenting his early travels "Peace Mission: Around the World on Motorcycle (Vol. I)" was published by Har Anand Publications in 2009. A Hindi version for the book was released a year later by Sheila Dikshit, then Chief Minister of Delhi. At the book release K. Padmanabhaiah, former Home Secretary of India, recalled Bhim Singh's contributions to reinstating the democratic process in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1996 assembly elections which were held after a gap of nine years. His next travelogue "Unbelievable—Delhi to Islamabad," addressed the need for fairer treatment of Pakistani prisoners in India. It was released by the vice president of India, Mohammad Hamid Ansari. Guest of honour at the book release Amitabh Mattoo, compared Bhim Singh to Che Guevara, for his decades long lobbying for amendment to Article 370, to fully integrate Jammu and Kashmir into India.
The second volume of his book documenting his global travels, "Peace Mission Around the World on Motorcycle (Vol. II)", was released by Dr. Karan Singh the erstwhile crown prince of Jammu and Kashmir.
Academics and student leadership On his travelsn he attended the University of London earning an LL.M. and was the first Indian to be elected Secretary of the University of London Union in 1971. Later in 1972, Bhim Singh was called to the bar at law, as a specialist on Palestinian and Middle Eastern affairs. Before returning to Jammu and Kashmir to engage in politics, Bhim Singh worked as a professor of international law at Cambridge University.
Early activism Friendship with Yasser Arafat Bhim Singh has been a vocal supporter of Arafat for over three decades and was the chairman of the Indo-Palestine Friendship Society. He first met a young Yasser Arafat in 1968 at a Red Cross office on the east bank of the Jordan river. In 1973 Bhim Singh would travel to Syria in support of Arafat and join the PLO over the dispute of Golan Heights between Israel and Syria during the Yom Kippur War. When in 1992 Arafat was exiled from Lebanon, Bhim Singh would once again visit him in support in Tunis and a few years later Singh would travel to Ramallah to see Arafat, where he had set up a temporary capital for Palestine. In 2016 Palestinian ambassador Adnan Abu Alhaija, released Bhim Singh's documentary film on Yasser Arafat at a screening in New Delhi.
International visits Bhim Singh first visited Hiroshima in 1972. Meeting survivors of the nuclear attacks on Japan, influenced his future campaigning for complete disarmament, and against American military interventions. He would return to Hiroshima several times throughout his political career on 6 August, the anniversary of the atomic bombing, to observe the fast for disarmament at Peace Memorial Park, and lecture on world unity.
He was the first Indian to travel to over 150 countries in the 1970s, and wrote a book to document his travels.
Political career Singh in 1973 was appointed president of the Youth Congress in Jammu and Kashmir by then prime minister Indira Gandhi, he then went on to become a general secretary of the All India Congress Committee.
Foundation of the Panthers Party He would later leave the Congress Party due to political and economic differences to found his own political party, the Jammu and Kashmir National Panther's Party (JKNPP) on 23 March 1982, along with a few other prominent political personalities including Jay Mala the former president of the Indian Students Congress. He was twice elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Singh has also been a member of National Integration Council, first in 1991 nominated by prime minister of India Narasimha Rao, and then again in 2008 nominated by prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. He has contested seven times in the Indian parliamentary elections including against the former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in Amethi, and former Bharatiya Janata Party leader LK Advani in New Delhi.