Gobind Singh Longowal

Gobind Singh Longowal was president of the SGPC for three years, from 29 November 2017 to 27 November 2020, by the SGPC's own list of presidents. He is a living person, and what follows is what the SGPC and the press have recorded.

The Tribune reported that the SGPC General House elected him its 42nd president on 29 November 2017, at its annual meeting at Teja Singh Samundri Hall in Amritsar, in place of Professor Kirpal Singh Badungar. Bibi Jagir Kaur proposed his name. He received 154 of the 170 votes of members present. Amrik Singh Shahpur of Dera Baba Nanak got 15, and Hardeep Singh Mohali abstained, protesting what he called political interference in SGPC affairs.

The Tribune described him as a former Dhuri MLA and former chairman of the Sangrur district planning board, a three-time MLA and a minister in the Badal Cabinet, who won the 2015 Dhuri by-election. It said he is the adopted son of the late Sant Harchand Singh Longowal and that his younger sister, Dr Inderjeet Kaur, chairs the All-India Pingalwara Society. Pingalwara's own site gives Dr Inderjit Kaur's birth as 25 January 1942 and Wikipedia gives Gobind Singh Longowal's as 18 September 1959, so “younger” does not fit if she is the same person; we found no other source for the relationship. It also noted that he had been one of 40 leaders awarded tankhah, a religious punishment, by the Akal Takht for visiting Dera Sacha Sauda before the Assembly elections. He told the paper his top priority was propagating Sikhism; the Tribune wrote that he avoided questions about the community's crisis and the damage to the SGPC's image.

Key moments

• 29 November 2017: elected SGPC president, succeeding Professor Kirpal Singh Badungar.
• 27 to 29 November 2020: the SGPC's list ends his term on 27 November. The Hitavada reported on 29 November that Bibi Jagir Kaur, polling 122 of 143 votes, had replaced him, that he had remained SGPC chief for three years, and that, earlier, SGPC members had authorised the Akali Dal president, Sukhbir Singh Badal, to decide who the next president would be.

Remembered for: a single three-year term at the head of the SGPC, which began after the term of Professor Kirpal Singh Badungar and ended with the return of Bibi Jagir Kaur, a change the Akali Dal's president was authorised to decide.