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Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune news Service
Tohra, February 4
Local residents, queued up outside polling booths, could not help looking back, fondly remembering their benefactor, the late Akali stalwart Gurcharan Singh Tohra, who dominated the SGPC for decades. Talking of him 12 years after his death, their eyes moist, they said it was because of him that their village had become known across the country.
“Notwithstanding his status, he would return to the village every evening, come what may,” they claimed, pointing towards his house which now wears a deserted look. “We miss him whenever elections are held. He was our strength and inspiration,” said Gurdial Singh, who worked with Tohra for several years.
Many locals expressed unhappiness with certain politicians for their “disloyalty to the Tohra legacy,” pointing out that some of them, now prominent Akali leaders, had been nurtured by “Tohra Sahib.”
“With him (Tohra) gone, the Shiromani Akali Dal’s hold has weakened not only in the village, but the entire area,” claimed Amar Singh. “When he was alive, no officer dared to enter the village without his permission. In case of any dispute, residents would approach him and accept his decision as final without a murmur—such was the respect that he enjoyed”, recalled Sukhdev Singh.
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