Jathedar Gurcharan Singh Tohra

Gurcharan Singh Tohra was born on 24 September 1924 in Tohra village, Patiala district, into what The Tribune called an ordinary Jat-Sikh farming family. He studied Punjabi literature at Panjab University, Lahore, joined the Akali Dal in 1938 and was arrested in 1944 during an Akali morcha. He became secretary of the state Akali Dal in 1948 and its junior vice-president in 1959, and he spent years in jail in all, in the political and religious agitations of his time.

He joined the SGPC in 1960 and its executive in 1961. On 6 January 1973, after the death of Sant Chanan Singh, he was first elected its president. The Tribune said he began by starting kar seva at the sarovar of Sri Harmandir Sahib, and credited him with restoring the glory of Sri Akal Takht Sahib. He held the presidency from 1973 to 23 March 1986, from 11 November 1986 to 28 November 1990, and from 13 November 1991 to 15 March 1999, which The Tribune called a record of over 25 years with only a few short breaks.

Key moments

• June 1984: he was inside the Sri Harmandir Sahib complex during Operation Blue Star, with Sant Harchand Singh Longowal and Balwant Singh Ramoowalia. The army took the three out in an armoured vehicle on the afternoon of 6 June.
• 15 March 1999: he resigned as SGPC president after a long clash with Parkash Singh Badal, whose camp had planned a no-confidence motion for the next day. The Tribune later described it as being unceremoniously removed by the pro-Badal executive.
• 26 July 2003: he was brought back as SGPC president after a gap of four years.
• 25 March 2004: he suffered a massive heart attack after doing kar seva at the sarovar. He died at Escorts Hospital, New Delhi, at 12.41 am on 1 April 2004, at the age of 79.

In Parliament he was elected to the Rajya Sabha six times, first in 1969, though he died before the sixth term began, and he sat in the Lok Sabha from 1977 to 1979. He was never elected to the Punjab assembly.

How he is judged: The Tribune's editorial at his death praised his personal honesty, noting he left no wealth beyond the ancestral house and land at Tohra, and also called him a wily fox who was always at loggerheads with those in power and who fell out with Surjit Singh Barnala and Parkash Singh Badal. Khushwant Singh, writing in the same paper, was harsher on his politics: he said Tohra had the power to be the uncrowned king of the Sikhs but lacked the vision to use it, and blamed him for failing to keep the Golden Temple out of Bhindranwale's hands and for having tamely surrendered to the army, while calling him scrupulously honest in money matters. That is Khushwant Singh's opinion, not a finding.