Who is Bibi Jagir Kaur, the new SGPC president?

Senior SAD leader Bibi Jagir Kaur has been elected president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee for the fourth time.  She replaces Gobind Singh Longowal, who remained the SGPC chief for three years.

Jagir Kaur is a former SGPC chief too and had become the first woman to be elected to the post in March 1999. She held the post till November 2000. In 2000, she resigned from her post following the controversy in which she was accused of killing her daughter. She was acquitted by Punjab and Haryana High Court in December 2018.

During her second tenure, she was SGPC president from September 2004 to November 2005. On assuming charge in 2004, she was embroiled in a controversy again as she supported women’s demand to conduct kirtan (prayers) inside the sanctum sanctorum of Golden Temple.

According to HT, She was born on October 15, 1954, at Bhatnura Lubana village in Jalandhar district. She graduated in arts in 1977 and did B.Ed. the next year. She worked as a mathematics teacher in a government school for 11 years.

In 1980, she married Charanjit Singh, the son of Harnam Singh, the head of Dera Sant Baba Prem Singh Murale Wale at Begowal in Kapurthala district. The couple had two daughters, Harpreet Kaur and Ranjeet Kaur. After her husband’s death in 1983, she took over the responsibility of the head of the dera in 1987.

In 1995, she formally joined the Shiromani Akali Dal and was elected as an SGPC member in 1996.