Beant Singh was born in a Ramdasia Sikh family to Baba Sucha Singh and Kartar Kaur. Singh's widow Bimal Kaur Khalsa initially joined the Sikh militant group, and then got imprisoned. Later she got elected from Ropar Constituency. His father, Baba Sucha Singh, was also elected member of Lok Sabha from Bathinda. Their son, Sarbjit Singh is a leader of SAD.
Assassination of Indira Gandhi
left a deep mark in the thinking of Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, both part of the Indian Elite Forces who served as bodyguards for Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Satwant Singh always worked the late shifts and Beant Singh worked the early morning shifts as the Prime Minister's security. On 31 October 1984, Satwant Singh faked a stomach illness and swapped duties with another guard so that they could work together to execute their plan. That morning, at approximately 9:00 AM, as Gandhi walked from her house, Singh drew a shotgun and fired three shots into Gandhi's abdomen. As she fell to the ground, Satwant Singh fired all 30 rounds from his Sten submachine gun into her body. Singh was shot to death during interrogation in custody shortly after the assassination took place. Satwant Singh was arrested and later sentenced to death along with co-conspirator Kehar Singh. The sentence was carried out on 6 January 1989. Beant Singh's act generated political support for Sikh radicals, resulting in their winning two Lok Sabha seats in the state of Punjab. The Lok Sabha is a directly elected 543-member lower house of the Parliament of India.
Honours and death anniversaries
In 2003, a Bhog ceremony was held at the highest Sikh temporal seat in Akal Takht, located in the Golden Temple Complex in Amritsar, where tributes were paid. In 2004, his death anniversary was again observed at Akal Takht, Amritsar, where his mother was honored by the head priest and tributes were paid to Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh by various political parties. On 6 January 2008, the Akal Takht declared Beant Singh and Satwant Singh 'martyrs of Sikhism', The Sikhism-centric political party in India, Shiromani Akali Dal, observed the death anniversary of Beant Singh and Satwant Singh as 'martyrdom' for the first time on 31 October 2008; every 31 October since, their 'martyrdom day' has been observed at Sri Akal Takht Sahib.
