Bhai Mohkam Singh

Bhai Mohkam Singh was the spokesman of the Damdami Taksal in the last years of Baba Thakur Singh and in the dispute over who should succeed him. The Tribune called him chief spokesman of the Taksal in December 2004 and January 2005. The sources we opened give no date of birth or death for him and do not say where he came from.

Key moments

• 13 April 2003: The Tribune reported from Amritsar that, at a function for the families of men killed in Punjab's years of conflict, Mohkam Singh said Baba Thakur Singh, acting Jathedar of the Taksal, had repeated that Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was alive, while Dr Jagjit Singh Chohan told the same gathering that Bhindranwale was no more.
• 31 December 2004: the SGPC and the Sikh clergy decided to recognise a breakaway Taksal group led by Baba Ram Singh. Mohkam Singh accused that group's supporters of forging Baba Thakur Singh's signatures to claim Ram Singh had been named the 15th Jathedar. He showed a video which he said showed Thakur Singh avoiding signing a letterhead. The Tribune reports these as his claims, and says the other camp called the video doctored.
• 1 January 2005: he went to Begowal to ask SGPC president Bibi Jagir Kaur to bring the SGPC and the Sikh clergy to the antim ardas of Baba Thakur Singh at Chowk Mehta. She refused, saying the decision to recognise Ram Singh's group could not be altered at that stage and that the SGPC would try to reconcile the two groups after the antim ardas.
• 3 January 2005: he accompanied Baba Harnam Singh to Sri Harmandir Sahib and Sri Akal Takht Sahib; he had said the Taksal reached a consensus on Harnam Singh's succession, saying the party had gone to pay obeisance, not to receive honour; the SGPC had not planned to present Baba Harnam Singh with a siropa.

Remembered for: being the public voice of the Taksal side that stood behind Baba Harnam Singh at Chowk Mehta in the succession dispute after Baba Thakur Singh's death.