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Panth Rattan Shiri Gurcharan Singh Tohra (24 September 1924 – 1 April 2004), former president of SGPC (Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee), a Sikh body in charge of controlling Gurdwara (Sikh places of worship). He died of a heart attack in New Delhi on April 1, 2004 at the age of 79. He remained the head of the SGPC for a record 27 years, and was one of the most influential and controversial Sikh leaders of the 20th century.
Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam described the Sikh leader as a "prominent political and social leader who was well known for his work during his many years in public life".
Tohra, a graduate in Punjabi from Lahore University, worked at the grass root level for the next two decades and came into contact with Communists, including CPI-M leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet though he did not become one himself.
Known as a hardliner, Tohra had carved out for himself the image of a non-conformist with the powers-that-be in Akali politics and had taken frontline SAD leaders Surjit Singh Barnala and Parkash Singh Badal who had headed Akali Dal governments in Punjab in the eighties and nineties.
Tohra was a member of Lok Sabha in 1977-79 though earlier he was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1969 to 1976, re-elected in May, 1980, April, 1982, in April, 1998 and again in March 2004.
Tohra became the acting president of SGPC, which manages key Sikh shrines, in 1972 after the death of Sant Chanan Singh and was formally elected its president for the first time in November that year.
Tohra continued to head the SGPC, considered the mini-parliament of the Sikh community, for a record 27 years before he was unceremoniously removed from the key post following a split in SAD in the wake of his revolt against Badal's leadership.
Tohra was arrested during the Emergency and was very popular in Punjab until Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala emerged on the scene and militancy took over Sikh politics.
After Operation Blue Star in 1984, Tohra became an embittered man and did not endorse the Punjab accord put forward by the Rajiv Gandhi government to the Akalis for sharing political power with Harchand Singh Longowal. He took another controversial step some time later by having militants demolish the Akal Takht which was rebuilt after Operation Blue Star by pro-government religious leaders. The Takht was rebuilt by the militants over several years. This turned him into the 'bete noire' not only of the Centre but also of the then Akali government in Punjab headed by Surjit Singh Barnala which had opposed the move.
He was detained under the National Security Act but continued to be elected SGPC chairman for several years in absentia. Throughout this bleak period, Tohra was supported by Badal but in 1999, the two leaders, considered the best of friends, fell out after the SGPC chief pressed for Badal's removal as SAD chief.
Tohra was then expelled from SAD forcing him to form a new party Sarv Hind Shiromani Akali Dal with five members of Badal's cabinet, including Manjit Singh Calcutta, Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal, Harmail Singh Tohra, Inderjit Singh Zira and Surjit Singh Koli, who all resigned in protest against the expulsion.
Badal consolidated his grip on Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhism, by removing Bhai Ranjit Singh as its top Jathedar in February 1999 and installing his hand-picked Giani Puran Singh.
Adversity brought Tohra and Badal together again after SAD was routed in the February 2001 assembly elections in Punjab and Tohra's SSHAD failed to win even a single seat.
Badal was at the receiving end of Amarinder Singh-headed Congress government's anti-corruption campaign as vigilance personnel searched his premises as well as those of his MP son Sukhbir Singh Badal in Punjab and outside.
On June 13, 2003, Badal and Tohra finally buried the hatchet after the latter welcomed the former's appearance before the Akal Takht and expressed satisfaction over the mild religious punishment ordered by the Sikh clergy to the former chief minister. Tohra was appointed as SGPC President in July 2003 after he accepted Badal's pre-eminence in the SAD.
Category:1924 births Category:2004 deaths Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Indian politicians Category:Punjabi politicians
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Category:Afghan politicians Category:Afghan Sikhs Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.