Baba Harnam Singh Khalsa

Baba Harnam Singh Khalsa, also called Harnam Singh Dhumma (the Tribune writes Dhuma), is the head of the Damdami Taksal at Mehta Chowk near Amritsar, the Taksal once headed by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. He is a living public figure. The facts below are sourced and the judgments are attributed to the people who make them.

The Tribune and Wikipedia both treat Harnam Singh Khalsa and Harnam Singh Dhumma as one man: the Tribune of March 2025 captions its photograph "Baba Harnam Singh Khalsa 'Dhuma', the head of Damdami Taksal".

Key moments

• Late 2004 to January 2005: after the death of Baba Thakur Singh, Wikipedia gives 27 December 2004 as the day Harnam Singh took office. The Tribune of 3 January 2005 reported his anointment as acting Jathedar at Chowk Mehta on the Sunday, and that Bhai Rajinder Singh Mehta, an adviser to the Akali Dal (Badal), and senior leaders of Akali factions accepted him as Baba Thakur Singh's successor.
• The split: the same Tribune report adds that the Jathedars of the Takhts and the SGPC gave formal recognition to a breakaway group of the Taksal by presenting dastars to Baba Ram Singh. Another Tribune report, on a faction setting up a parallel office in Tarn Taran, quotes a former Jathedar of Takht Damdama Sahib, Giani Kewal Singh, saying the split was surfacing because no Panth-approved person had been appointed as head.
• 2007 to 2017: Wikipedia records his firm support for the Parkash Singh Badal-led Akali government, which many Sikhs opposed after the beadbi of 2015.
• 2024: on behalf of Sikh organisations in Maharashtra he backed the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in the state elections. The managing committee of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, Canada, accused him of working "hand in glove with the government" and called for a boycott; the Taksal published advertisements against defamatory remarks, and Harnam Singh said his appeal was meant to address the grievances of Sikhs in Maharashtra (Swarajya).
• 12 March 2025: he opposed the SGPC's removal of the Takht Jathedars and called a Panthic gathering for 14 March. In a video message he did not name any SGPC or Akali leader but said the Panthic chaos was an attempt to save "one-family".

The Tribune observes that the Taksal's closeness to the Akali Dal and the SGPC could not be ignored in the past. In a separate statement he warned the Aam Aadmi Party against using Bhindranwale's name for political gain.