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The Rediff Profile/ Jagdev Singh Talwandi

Onkar Singh profiles the new president of the Shiromani Gurdwarda Prabhandak Committee

Jathedar (Gurcharan Singh) Tohra and I joined the Akali Dal at almost the same time," says 70-year-old Jagdev Singh Talwandi, the new president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, recalling a 40-year-old moment. "We have not risen to these positions overnight."

Talwandi was born in a small village called Talwandi Rai in Ludhiana. He admits without hesitation that he has never gone to school. "I am an illiterate person. I have no formal education. Whatever little I know is what I have learnt from experience in these 70 years. I firmly believe religion is the guiding light in everyone's life."

A long time associate of sant Harchand Singh Longowal, former SGPC chief Tohra and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Talwandi was in the thick of Akali politics during the turbulent 1982 to 1992 decade. He participated in both the Dharam Yudh morcha and the Kapoori morcha.

At the same time, when militancy virtually began to dictate the political situation in Punjab, Talwandi chose to lay low, even as he continued working at the village and district levels. "As a result," says an associate, "he was able to keep in touch with workers at the grassroot level."

In 1978, when Talwandi was president of the Shiromani Akali Dal, he connived with Tohra to topple the Badal government. In fact, he and Tohra prepared a a memorandum against Badal and submitted it to the Punjab governor.

Today, though, Talwandi sings Badal's praises. "I have committed some blunders in the past. I have already expressed my regrets for the same. Badalsahib has been gracious enough to forget the past and put me in charge of the SGPC," an emotionally charged Talwandi told the media in Chandigarh. Badal was present on the occasion.

Yet, a day before his election as SGPC chief, he was criticising Badal for letting someone like Bibi Jagir Kaur continue in office. "She is an accused in the murder case of her teenaged daughter, yet Badal does not listen to the voice of sanity," he angrily told his supporters.

He believes Jagir Kaur tarnished the SGPC image by not resigning from her post after she was named principal accused in the murder of her daughter, Harpreet Kaur.

Bibi's supporters point out that Talwandi is no saint either. They accuse him of using his clout to appoint his son, Ranjit, as chairman of the Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation. Then, a couple of years ago, Ranjit was convicted of murdering Chamkaur Singh, a villager whom he mistook for a political rival. Ranjit has now been released on parole; Bibi's supporters allege he has hardly spent any time in prison after his conviction.

Talwandi is known to pride himself on his clean image. "There is no one," he is said to have told his supporters soon after being elected SGPC president, "who can point an accusing finger at me or say I took money from someone for doing a particular job. Or that I charged fake travel bills, etc." Later, he told rediff.com, "I will not let anyone steal from the SGPC coffers."

Talwandi is known to have a quick temper, but he cools down quickly. He says he cannot stand people who regularly change their party loyalties. "I am not like those who are in one party one day and another the next day. I joined the Akali Dal with Tohra 40 years ago and I will die as an Akali leader."

EXTERNAL LINKS
Dangerous prospect
AISSF seeks action against Talwandi

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