Diplomat-turned-politician Taranjit Singh Sandhu will be sworn in as the 23rd Lieutenant Governor of Delhi on Wednesday. He will become the second Sikh leader to head the national capital, after Marshal of the Indian Air Force Arjan Singh in 1989.
Sandhu (63) comes from a prominent family of reformists and educationists and was born in Amritsar, Punjab, in 1963. His grandfather, Teja Singh Samundri, was a leading figure in the Gurdwara Reform Movement in the early 20th century, which transformed the management of Sikh religious institutions. In honor of Samundri’s legacy, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) hall in Amritsar has been named Teja Singh Samundri Hall.
Old people recall that when the SGPC faced difficult times while fighting a legal appeal before the Privy Council, Teja Singh Samundri mortgaged approximately 50 acres of his land to help raise funds. Taranjit Singh Sandhu’s father, Sardar Bishan Singh Samundri, carried on the family legacy.
A renowned academic, he served as Principal of Khalsa College, Amritsar, and later became the founding Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University when it was established in 1969 to mark the 50th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.
Taranjit Singh Sandhu’s mother, Dr. Jagjit Kaur, was a renowned figure in her own right. She earned a doctorate from the United States and later served as Principal of the Government College for Women, Amritsar. Raised among the elite, Taranjit Singh Sandhu’s life took a natural turn towards academic excellence. The newly appointed Lieutenant Governor attended The Lawrence School, Sanawar, and later St. Stephen’s College, where he studied history. Sandhu completed his MA in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University and joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1988, a career that spanned nearly three decades. Sandhu gained special expertise in India-US relations, and his final assignment was as India’s Ambassador to the US.
One of the most experienced Indian diplomats on US affairs, he has previously served twice at the Indian Mission in Washington, DC. He was Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC, from July 2013 to January 2017. Prior to this, Sandhu was First Secretary (Political) at the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC, responsible for liaison with the United States Congress, from 1997 to 2000. He also served at India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York from July 2005 to February 2009.
Prior to his assignment as India’s Ambassador to Washington, DC, Sandhu was India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka from January 2017 to January 2020. He also previously served as the Head of the Political Wing at the Indian High Commission in Colombo from December 2000 to September 2004.
Notably, Sandhu is married to Reenat Sandhu, a career diplomat who has served as India’s Ambassador to Italy and the Netherlands.
Now, as Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, the former diplomat faces a multitude of tasks – the biggest challenge being managing Delhi’s multiple authorities.
The city has multiple layers of governance – the Government of India, the Government of Delhi, the Delhi Municipal Corporation, and agencies like the DDA and NDMC – which require smooth coordination.
Although Delhi has the advantage of bearing most of its expenditure, with funding for the Delhi Police, DDA, NDMC, and central government hospitals coming from the Centre, the challenge is to bring the various layers of command together.
