Meet new national minorities panel chief Harjeet Grewal: RSS member to BJP face during farm stir

“Since joining the BJP from the RSS, I have worked relentlessly to strengthen the party’s organisational structure in different states while discharging various responsibilities assigned by the leadership from time to time,” Grewal told The Indian Express.

Grewal will hold a Cabinet rank as the NCM chief. “I received a call from the NCM on Friday regarding my appointment and will join in the coming days. It is a constitutional post and I will try to ensure maximum welfare of minorities across the country,” he said.

With this appointment, Grewal became the third Sikh to head the NCM and the second from Punjab. BJP leader Iqbal Singh Lalpura, from Punjab’s Rupnagar district, was appointed to the post in September 2021. He resigned in January 2022 to contest the Punjab Assembly elections before being reappointed to the post in April that year. His three-year tenure ended in April 2025, leaving the post vacant until Grewal’s appointment.

Earlier, Trilochan Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana, served as the NCM chairman from 2000 to 2003 during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government’s tenure.

Organisation man

Grewal’s rise within the BJP has been through the ranks, driven by organisational work rather than any electoral success.

Over the years, he worked to expand the BJP’s organisational network in Punjab, Haryana and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In 1990, he founded the BJP’s Kisan Morcha and later served as its national president and general secretary. In the late 1990s, he became the party’s first Sikh national secretary. He is currently a member of the BJP National Executive.

Looking back at his early years in politics, Grewal said joining the BJP during Punjab’s militancy was not an easy decision. “In the 1980s, when Punjab was battling terrorism, I joined the BJP. I had the opportunity to work with leaders like Vajpayee, L K Advani and Arun Jaitley. In 2002, I was working in Haryana when the BJP was not taken seriously there. But we continued to work year after year, expanded the organisation and inducted new workers. Today, the party is in its third consecutive term in power in Haryana. Hard work always pays. Ground-level organisational work is the backbone of any political party,” he said.

Grewal also served as vice-chairman of the National Cooperative Federation of India for 15 years before resigning earlier this year.

BJP face during farmers’ stir

During the 2020-2021 farmers’ agitation against the now-repealed farm laws, Grewal emerged as one of the BJP’s most visible Sikh faces in Punjab.

As a member of the party’s committee constituted to engage with farmer unions, he participated in several rounds of talks between farmer leaders and the Union government. The negotiations, however, failed to break the deadlock, and the farmers’ agitation continued for nearly 13 months.

His public defence of the BJP came at a personal cost. Farmer unions staged a months-long protest outside his house in Dhanaula, allegedly uprooted paddy saplings from his fields, appealed to villagers not to lease his land and painted anti-BJP slogans on the walls of his residence.

Electoral setbacks

Despite his prominence within the party organisation, Grewal has not had any electoral success.

He contested the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket in 1996 but secured only 12,862 votes. In the 2017 Punjab Assembly elections, he finished third with 19,151 votes from the Rajpura seat in Patiala district. He forfeited his security deposit in both elections.

Asked why the BJP continues to struggle electorally in Punjab, Grewal said: “Things have changed. Six years ago there was virtually a ‘no-entry’ situation for BJP leaders in villages. Today people welcome us and listen to us. They want to avail the Centre’s welfare schemes and can see the country’s progress under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They also see development in the 22 NDA-ruled states and are gradually realising that the BJP represents real change for Punjab. Modi himself said this in Jalandhar on Friday,” he said.

Dismissing past speculation about his bid to quit the BJP earlier, Grewal said, “Those were merely rumours. I was unwell and underwent surgery, due to which I remained politically inactive for a few months. I am fit now. I am a true RSS volunteer and will remain a part of the BJP forever.”

Grewal’s appointment comes at a time when the BJP is giving greater organisational prominence to Punjab leaders. In May, Barnala-based Kewal Singh Dhillon was appointed the party’s Punjab president. With another leader from the district now heading the NCM, the appointments are being seen as part of the BJP’s effort to strengthen its outreach among Punjabi and Jat Sikh leaders.