Kulwant was born on 2nd Nov 1947 to Shanti Devi and Narendra Nath Gupta just after India’s Independence in a middle class family in Delhi. He was the 3rd youngest amongst the siblings – Saroj, Kailash, Kulwant & Prabha. He from a very young age had a revolutionary mind set and was immensely influenced by India’s freedom struggle. Kulwant did his Bachelors and Masters degree in Commerce at Delhi University and became the Supreme Councilor Of Delhi University Student’s Union while studying at Ramjas College. While his political career started in college, it was only in 1971 when he formally attended a training camp of All India Congress Committee (Dehradun, June 14-27, 1971) that the socialist in him started coming to the forefront. It was Congress Metropolitan Councillor, PN Singh, who played the pivotal role in bringing Kulwant into the forefront of Indian Politics in early 70s. It was during the same period that he met young turk who would be his guru for life, Chandrashekhar. PN Singh being a childhood friend of Chandrashekhar from Ballia, introduced Kulwant to the young turk. The young turks group of Chandrashekhar, Mohan Dharia and Ram Dhan had a great influence on youthful Kulwant.
At a very young age of 28 years, Kulwant along with the young turks raised his voice against the corruption in the Indira Government and was jailed during Emergency for 18 months staying at Tihar and Fatehgarh Jail. It was during his jail days that Kulwant came close to Chaudhary Charan Singh, Prakash Singh Badal and many other future political leaders who would be his friends for life. Immediately after coming out of Jail in 1977, Kulwant won Metropolitan Council elections in Delhi contesting from Hauz Khas Constituency. It was his Maternal Uncle, Devinder Nath Mittal (an English Professor at Mata Gujri College, Punjab), who arranged his meeting with Nirmal and got them married in Delhi. He and Nirmal were blessed with 2 sons – Sohil & Jeevesh.
The Back bone of the family was her mother Shanti Devi who stood by him like a rock during emergency and in whole family life.
In all the situations, Kulwant remained a family man. He took care of his family well during all his adversities. He was aided well by his wife Nirmal who was always on his side in his thick or thin. He not only gave best of the education to his sons but also inculcated high moral values in them which carry them well in life now.
Being an activist and environmentalist at heart, Kulwant did a cycle yatra to the center of India along with his friends to protest against the bofors scam and also stood firmly against the government’s raid at the India Express offices. While Kulwant played a pivotal role with Chandrashekhar in creating the Bhondsi Ashram, it was in 1991 when Chandrashekhar became PM that he bestowed his dream of greening the Aravallis on Kulwant. They both wanted to set up Acharya Narendradev Yadgar Van in Devli village (Delhi) but it was not to be. The government collapsed in 6 months and the dream never turned into a reality. He never left Chandrashekhar even when he was left alone by all his comrades. He finally joined BJP at the request of Chandrashekhar since he was paralysed and his future was getting bleak with every passing day. Kulwant is remembered as a friend of friends who never compromised on his political values.
