SANGRUR: It is time for the Sikhs to give a burial to the radical ideology and cement the Hindu Sikh ties, reject the radicals once and for all and chart out for themselves a course of action which would serve the community well”. Thus speaks the septuagenarian Akali Dal (Badal)leader and outgoing president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, as he goes places, wooing the Sikh voters for the general election to this statutory body. His ringing antiradical stance makes many among the audience feel that Tohra has perhaps never been so critical of the militants. The people endorsed the moderate stream of thought in the Lok Sabha election but the radicals raised their heads again. The SGPC poll offers an opportunity to the community to give the radical ideology a final burial says Tohra, who is contesting this election or the fourth time.
The person who has been lording over this body to manage the Sikh shrines for a record period of 22 years contested the first SGPC election in 1960. “I moved around on a bicycle.
The party gave me Rs 2,000 as election expenses and I returned Rs 1,300. The situation now is entirely different,” he told this reporter, who was trailing him during his tour of Sangrur district.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 16, 1996
