Bhai Dhian Singh Mand

Bhai Dhian Singh Mand is the acting Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib named by the Sarbat Khalsa. He was given the post at Chabba village on 10 November 2015, standing in for Bhai Jagtar Singh Hawara, who is in prison. The SGPC rejected the Chabba appointments, and The Tribune calls him the "parallel" acting jathedar. He is a former Member of Parliament and a leader of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar).

Key moments

• 10 November 2015: the Sarbat Khalsa at Chabba, on the Amritsar-Tarn Taran road, was called by SAD (Amritsar) and the United Akali Dal in protest at the five Takht heads reversing their pardon of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim. The Tribune reported a crowd of over 100,000. It named Hawara jathedar of Akal Takht, with Mand to officiate in his absence, Amrik Singh Ajnala head of Takht Kesgarh Sahib and Baljit Singh Daduwal head of Takht Damdama Sahib. The Amritsar police commissioner said Mand was arrested inside the Golden Temple, and SAD (Amritsar) president Simranjit Singh Mann was taken into custody in a pre-emptive move.
• The SGPC's reply: its president Avtar Singh Makkar said the gathering held no sanctity and its resolutions stood null and void, and that the SGPC has full authority over jathedar appointments under the Gurdwara Act of 1925. The Akal Takht's Giani Gurbachan Singh said the gathering had hurt the community's sentiments.
• Diwali 2015: Mand read the first parallel address in the Golden Temple complex, about half an hour after Giani Gurbachan Singh's.
• May 2016: he announced a plan for a parallel Akal Takht secretariat near the Golden Temple.
• 1 June to about 9 December 2018: he led the Insaaf Morcha at Bargari, a sit-in of 192 days. Its demands were the arrest of those accused in the sacrilege cases, action against police officials accused of firing on peaceful protesters at Behbal Kalan, and the release or transfer to Punjab of Sikh prisoners held elsewhere. On winding it up he said Panthic leaders would meet at Fatehgarh Sahib on 20 December to decide the next phase, and denied that they were divided.
• 8 February 2022: he pronounced two Congress ministers and three Congress MLAs tankhaiya, saying they had conspired to distort the Bargari morcha. They had sat on the government panel that negotiated with its organisers.

His standing. The SGPC, the Akal Takht and the Akali Dal jointly rejected the 2015 appointments as the work of anti-Panthic powers, The Tribune reported in 2017. The same report said the parallel jathedars struggle to win mass acceptance but are often seen as Sikh leaders who have fallen out with the Akali establishment. The Chabba gathering acted as a Sarbat Khalsa, the Panth's own assembly; the SGPC answers that appointments belong to it under the 1925 Act.

What he is remembered for. Mand is the most visible face of the Sarbat Khalsa line of the Akal Takht since 2015, and of the Bargari morcha.