The particular Punjab Assembly session on Friday that marked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) authorities’s first main confrontation with the Center coincided with the 18th demise anniversary of Akali icon Gurcharan Singh Tohra who spent his life standing as much as the central authorities led by Indira Gandhi.
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The House handed a decision on the instant switch of Chandigarh to Punjab, days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced that central service guidelines would apply to the workers of the Union Territory’s administration.
While the BJP despatched Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who’s the celebration chief answerable for Punjab, to attend a memorial operate organized by the Akali chief’s household at his ancestral village of Tohra, close to Patiala, the state authorities captured the eye with its commercial blitzkrieg honoring the “Panth Rattan”.
In the House, AAP leaders, together with Budhlada MLA Budh Ram spoke of the contributions of Akali doyen Darshan Singh Pheruman, who died in 1969 whereas fasting to demand the inclusion of Chandigarh and Punjabi-speaking areas in Punjab, one thing which didn’t occur after the Punjabi Suba got here into being.
According to political observers, the AAP is making an attempt to spice up its picture as a Punjabi celebration and applicable the legacy of Akali agitations for the state. “The party has no historical baggage, it can choose what or who it wants to ally with, just like the BJP, which chose to appropriate Patel (Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel),,” stated Dr Pramod Kumar who heads the Chandigarh-based Institute for Development Communication, a assume tank.
But Tohra’s grandson Kanwarveer Singh, who joined the BJP within the run-up to the Assembly elections, hit out on the ruling celebration, saying, “The AAP authorities has cited monetary constraints for not holding the annual state-level operate in his honor this yr. Unlike the years earlier than the pandemic, when a number of Cabinet ministers would descend on the village, we didn’t even obtain a name from anybody within the authorities.”
Referring to Shekhawat’s go to from Delhi, Kanwarveer added, “That is what I call an honest tribute.”
Asked concerning the AAP’s tribute, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) spokesperson and former minister Dr Daljit Sigh Cheema stated he was grateful to the AAP authorities for remembering Tohra.
Appeal throughout celebration strains
Entirely his political profession, Tohra remained steadfast in his opposition to what he known as the “predatory policies” of the Congress below Indira Gandhi. He dug in his heels on points such because the division of river water and the territory between Punjab and Haryana.
After the demise of the five-time Rajya Sabha MP, who headed the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) for a report 27 years, governments led by the SAD and the Congress made it a practice to honor him by organizing an annual state-level operate in his reminiscence.
Though the occasion has misplaced its sheen over time, SGPC chief Harjinder S Dhami stated leaders comparable to Tohra and Master Tara Singh nonetheless command respect throughout celebration strains in Punjab. “Tohra saab Punjab di bahut vaddii shakhsiyat ne, eh ishtehaaran ne ohna di yaad nu taaza kita hai (Tohra saab was a towering figure of the state, these ads have revived his memory),” he added.
The legacy of Tohra’s integrity is such that following his demise in 2004 former Congress Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had stated, “I’m paying tribute to the honesty of Mr Tohra. He by no means made cash and lived a clear, easy political life.”
The AAP’s advert additionally mentions this side of the Akali chief’s legacy, referring to him as “an apostle of value-based politics”.
What concerning the Akali Dal?
Though the AAP’s transfer reveals the attraction the Akali icon nonetheless has within the state’s politics, each his grandson and a breakaway Akali Dal faction claimed that the SAD had forgotten Tohra who had as soon as sought to dismiss Parkash Singh Badal because the celebration’s chief.
Praising the AAP, Akali Dal (Sanyukt) president SS Dhindsa, who was a detailed buddy of Tohra, stated, “He was a really tall chief of Punjab. He can’t be forgotten despite the fact that his father or mother celebration Akali Dal has tried to disregard him.”
Kanwarveer hit out on the SAD for holding a separate operate at Gurdwara Dukhnivaran Sahib, alleging that it had finished so to maintain celebration leaders from visiting Tohra Mandi. “For Bapu ji (Tohra), Akali Dal was his family but this time only Prem Singh Chandumajra (a former Akali MP) visited the village,” he added.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
