Shabeg Singh
Encyclopedia
Major General Shabeg Singh AVSM
and PVSM
(1925–1984), was an Indian Army
officer noted for his service in training of Mukti Bahini
volunteers during the Bangladesh Liberation War
, and later for his role in training Sikh militants in their occupation of the Harmandir Sahib
(Golden Temple) in Amritsar
.
s, about nine miles (14 km) from Amritsar
-Chogawan
Road. He was the eldest son of Sardar Bhagwan Singh and Pritam Kaur, and had three brothers and a sister. He traced his lineage to great Sikh warrior, Bhai Mehtab Singh Bhangu
who along with Bhai Sukha Singh slew the notorious Massa Rangar in 1740 and thus avenged the desecration of the Golden Temple
. The family was well-to-do and prosperous and had sizeable land holding of over 100 acre (0.404686 km²). Sardar Bhagwan Singh was the village Lambardar
. Nand Singh was the great-grandfather of Shabeg Singh.
From his early childhood Shabeg Singh displayed leadership qualities and above-average intelligence. He would often spontaneously composed extemporaneous verses to caricature interesting village personalities. He displayed a keen interest in history and literature and his village teachers were impressed with his intellectual ability. They advised Sardar Bhagwan Singh and Pritam Kaur to send him to a school. He was sent to the Khalsa College in Amritsar
for secondary education, and later to the Government College in Lahore
for higher education.
Shabeg Singh was an outstanding football and hockey
player, and excelled in athletics. At the age of 18 years he had equaled the India records in 100 meters sprint and was the District Broad jump champion. However, even though he had a natural ability for sports he did not wish to pursue that as a career, his mind was on the army, which was considered a noble profession. He excelled in studies and generally topped his class.
The Indian Govt. did not want the world to know that the Indian Army was training and directing the Bengali insurgents so all activities were very secret. Shabeg was so thoroughly involved in these clandestine operations that for five months from December 70 to April 71, his family had no news about his whereabouts. They believed he was till in Nagaland and wondered why he did not write because he had always been regular in writing home to his wife. In April 1970, the first letter was received from the Civilian address of a Merchant shop in Aggartala and his name was written as S. Baigh, such was the nature of secrecy maintained of the Army's involvement in the insurgency movement. The wife was quite confused and the family wondered what was going on because the letter was very brief and just said, "don't worry I am ok.”
Meanwhile as the Mukti Bahini got bolder, the Pak Army in the East began to grow demoralized due to the onslaught. It got so widely dispersed in trying to contain the 'Mukti Bahini' that when the Indian Army launched its operations in Nov. 1971 they were able to walk through to Dacca, virtually unopposed. Over one hundred thousand enemy troops with the complete general staff surrendered, leading to the emergence of Bangladesh. The credit for this great achievement was largely due to the efforts of Shabeg Singh, who spent day and night organizing, motivating and training young Bengali youth to fight for their homeland. Such was the motivation of a Bengali youth force known as Mukti Bahini and so perfect the direction of their operation that no senior administrative officer felt safe in Bengal. Guerilia strikes were launched on five star hotels and on ships in Chittagong harbor to drive home the extent of power, which the Mukti Bahini wielded. Strategic bridges were destroyed, factories closed and movement within Bangladesh restricted resulting in a paralysis of the economy.
No doubt it was a cakewalk for the Indian Army when the actual operations were launched. The Indian government promoted Shaheg Singh to the post of Major General and awarded him the Param Vashist Sewa Medal in recognition of his services. He had earlier been awarded the Ati Vashist Sewa Medal also. He was made General Officer in Command of MP Bihar and Orissa. The Jaya Pyakash Narayan movement had started during 1972-73 and became a serious threat to the Indira Gandhi Govt. The Police were sympathetic with JP and his followers, so the Government decided to use the Army. Gen Shabeg was asked to arrest JP and take some harsh measure against his followers but he refused saying this was not his job.
The result was that the Congress Govt. later instituted a CBI inquiry to harass him on cooked-up charges and he was out posted of the area. After the Indo-Pak war, all the Pakistani POWs were under his jurisdiction and senior General Staff were kept at Jabalpur that was also the HQs of MP.Bihar and Orissa area. Due to jealousy of certain senior army officers, he was not given the command of a Division, which was a move of the Army for denying him promotion. Here was a field commander with so much war experience-denied command of a combat formation. Why so? Only to do deny him promotion when his name came up. While he was posted as GOC of the UP Area HQs in whose jurisdiction the Kumaon Regimental Center is placed, it was found that the commander of the Kumaon Military Farm had given a large sum money to the Chief, Gen Raina, who was himself from the same regiment. A court of inquiry discovered that General Raina (a Kashmiri Brahmin), Army received over two hundred thousand rupees from the Kumaon farm to meet expenses for his daughter's marriage.
The forthwith posting was an unprecedented action because peacetime postings had never been conducted on such an emergency basis. Soon after that the Army instituted a court of inquiry against Gen. Shabeg Singh which dragged on for one year till the date of his retirement on May, 1 1976. The main charge against the General was that he had accepted a plaque valued at Rs 2500 as a gift on his posting out of the Jabalpur area HQs. -Even though a similar present had been given to his predecessor and it had been common for senior officers to accept such gifts. However, in the case of Gen. Shabeg it suddenly became an offense. Some other flimsy charges were also leveled against the General a charge was brought against the lands associated with his official residence to be used for cultivation and another permitting resale of goods purchased in the area HQ's Canteen. These practices had been going on long before the Gen. had taken command of the area in 1972.
That the Indian Government, in concert with the Army Chief, was on a witch hunt became perfectly clear, when one day prior to Gen. Shabeg's retirement, on April 30, 1976 the hero of 'Mukti Bahini', a highly decorated general with both the PVSM and AVSM, one who had been actively involved in every operation the Indian Army had fought since his joining the service and who had spent the major portion of his life in field areas far from his family—sacrifycing time with his wife and children, was suddenly dismissed from the Army.
Such was the treatment meted out to one of the nation's bravest and hardest working soldiers and outstanding Generals. The Indian government and some senior Army officers went so far as to dubb him, after Operation Blue Star in 1984, as 'disgruntled' and frustrated, only because he, like his illustrious ancestor, was defending his ideals, community and beliefs in what he saw as an attack aimed at bring harm to the Golden Temple.
Gen Shabeg Singh was convinced, even while he was still serving in the Army, that the Government of India was curbing the freedom of Sikhs all over India. He was aware of the discrimination against Sikhs in denying them promotions and the general hostility of the Govt. (who were intent upon on reducing the numbers of Sikhs in the Army); the general reduction in the numbers of Sikhs in the Army and the policy of the Govt. towards Sikhs in Punjab by denying them capital industries (by restricting Sikh farmers to the planting of wheat and other crops whose prices were controlled so as to deny them any meaningful reward); the denial of full and fare shares of river waters, all of which he viewed as a part of an overall conspiracy to deny Sikhs the same rights of other citizens of India.
Sikh demands for autonomy were treated as treachery and anti-patriotic by the Govt, and the "free" press vociferously branded the Sikh demands as secessionist. The beleaguered Sikhs had no way to voice their grievances, they were not properly organized, they had no press which commanded international attention. The Akali party was painted as a party of uneducated, unlettered, obscurantists Sikhs so that those belonging to the Sikh intelligentsia shied away from the organization. The Akalis in turn were suspicious of any Sikhs who had been part of the Government and were suspicious of their loyalties.
This resulted in a growing gap between the Sikh Intelligentsia and Sikh politicians. Retired Sikh Army officers as well as Civil Administration preferred to join the Congress rather than a Sikh political party.
In 1977, Gen Shabeg Singh decided to throw-in his lot with the Akali Party as it was the only party in Punjab which was Sikhism oriented instead of Congress which was more of a secular party. He met Sardar Gurcharan Singh Tohra and offered to work as a soldier of the Panth. The shrewd SGPC president was initially hesitant and distant but gradually was won over by the sincerity of the general and started seeking his advice on important matters like allowing the participation of the Sikh Intelligentsia and ex servicemen with the Aakli Morcha.
Attacks on the General's Family
It was the way of Shabeg Singh that once he took a decision, he stuck to it and refused to be shaken from his resolve. His brother, who was progressive and a successful farmer and an active political worker in the Terrai (state of UP in North India) at Bazpur became the first victim of the Government's oppression on the General's family. The local Congress leader along with the police connived to finish him and he was killed by the Congress leader in 1978. The same congressman has ever since been terrifying the Sikhs in that area. The loss of his younger brother, was a big blow to Shabeg Singh but his resolve was not weakened.
The general and his family members were harassed, the CBI tried to implicate the general in a case of alleged misappropriation of wealth and dragged on the case till 1983 Dec., to embarrass and harass him. Eventually the case fell through due to its flimsiness and the acquitted general said to his son, "These CBI official knowing too well the weakness of their case and feeling ashamed of their vain attempts to slander me could not bear to look me in the face." For five years he had to bear with this govt. sponsored harassment only because he had opted to politics and not taken repressive means against Jaya Prakash Narain's movement a few years earlier.
Gen Shabeg Singh was very active during the Akali's peaceful agitation against Government policies of "seeing Sikhs as terrorists" and "river waters and transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab" of 1980 to 84. He courted arrest a number of times and won the hearts of the agitationist who saw that here was one leader who did not accept any preferential treatment in prison. He slept on the floor on a single rug and gave his cot to any old or infirm co-prisoner. He cared for their wants and protested to jail authorities for better conditions for the old and weak agitationists. He won the respect of his colleagues and other leaders like Prakash Singh Badal, Balwant Singh, H.S. Dhindsa and Vice Chancellor B.S.Samundri. Most Akali leaders liked and appreciated his work and sense of dedication. All those who associated with him were enthused by his Spirit He became popular with the people in Punjab and was soon fully engrossed in his service to the "'Panth". During the periods when he was out of jail he spent a major portion of his time in the village at Khiala where his mother lived He did not care for the old age comforts that he had planned for by constructing a comfortable house at Dehra Dun. His wife too came to stay in the village where he spent most of the time. This was in spite of her ill health due to a defective kidney and hypertension and the neglect of their house at Dehra Dun. Punjab had become a leaderless state in 1982- or perhaps there were two many leaders. The people of Punjab were confused. There was Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Parkash Singh Badal, Sant Longowal, Jagdev Singh Talwandi and a host of other big and small leaders. But everyone was suspect in the eyes of the people thanks to the Govt. propaganda and machination of Congress led by Gandhi.
Ati Vishisht Seva Medal
Ati Vishisht Seva Medal is a military award of India given to recognize "distinguished service of an exceptional order" to all ranks of the armed forces....
and PVSM
Param Vishisht Seva Medal
Param Vishisht Seva Medal is a military award of India. It was constituted in 1960 and since then till 1980, it was awarded in recognition to peace-time service of most exceptional order.-External links:...
(1925–1984), was an Indian Army
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
officer noted for his service in training of Mukti Bahini
Mukti Bahini
Mukti Bahini , also termed as the "Freedom Fighters" or FFs, collectively refers to the armed organizations who fought against the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War. It was dynamically formed by Bengali regulars and civilians after the proclamation of Bangladesh's independence on...
volunteers during the Bangladesh Liberation War
Bangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War was an armed conflict pitting East Pakistan and India against West Pakistan. The war resulted in the secession of East Pakistan, which became the independent nation of Bangladesh....
, and later for his role in training Sikh militants in their occupation of the Harmandir Sahib
Harmandir Sahib
The Harmandir Sahib also Darbar Sahib , also referred to as the Golden Temple, is a prominent Sikh gurdwara located in the city of Amritsar, Punjab . Construction of the gurdwara was begun by Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru, and completed by his successor, Guru Arjan Dev...
(Golden Temple) in Amritsar
Amritsar
Amritsar is a city in the northern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city to be over 1,500,000, with that of the entire district numbering 3,695,077...
.
Early days
General Shabeg Singh belonged to Khiala village (earlier known as Khiala Nand Singhwala) of the BhanguBhangu
Bhangu, Bhangoo, or Bhango is a Jat gotra or clan mainly found in the Punjab state of North India, Sindh and Punjab province of Pakistan.-History:...
s, about nine miles (14 km) from Amritsar
Amritsar
Amritsar is a city in the northern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city to be over 1,500,000, with that of the entire district numbering 3,695,077...
-Chogawan
Chogawan
Chogawan village, the headquarters of Chogawan block, is situated around 20 km North West of Amritsar city. Chogawan is a predominantly rural block with 113 villages and shares a large border with the neighbouring country, Pakistan. It has a population of 148134 persons with around 27% of its...
Road. He was the eldest son of Sardar Bhagwan Singh and Pritam Kaur, and had three brothers and a sister. He traced his lineage to great Sikh warrior, Bhai Mehtab Singh Bhangu
Bhangu
Bhangu, Bhangoo, or Bhango is a Jat gotra or clan mainly found in the Punjab state of North India, Sindh and Punjab province of Pakistan.-History:...
who along with Bhai Sukha Singh slew the notorious Massa Rangar in 1740 and thus avenged the desecration of the Golden Temple
Harmandir Sahib
The Harmandir Sahib also Darbar Sahib , also referred to as the Golden Temple, is a prominent Sikh gurdwara located in the city of Amritsar, Punjab . Construction of the gurdwara was begun by Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru, and completed by his successor, Guru Arjan Dev...
. The family was well-to-do and prosperous and had sizeable land holding of over 100 acre (0.404686 km²). Sardar Bhagwan Singh was the village Lambardar
Lambardar
In Pakistan=The Land Revenue Act, 1967: -Section 4 :Village Officer means any person appointed under this Act whose duty is to collect, or to supervise the collection of, the revenue of an estate and include Kanungos, Patwaris, Service Centre Officials, Zabits, Kotars or Tapedars, Peons, Arbabs,...
. Nand Singh was the great-grandfather of Shabeg Singh.
From his early childhood Shabeg Singh displayed leadership qualities and above-average intelligence. He would often spontaneously composed extemporaneous verses to caricature interesting village personalities. He displayed a keen interest in history and literature and his village teachers were impressed with his intellectual ability. They advised Sardar Bhagwan Singh and Pritam Kaur to send him to a school. He was sent to the Khalsa College in Amritsar
Amritsar
Amritsar is a city in the northern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city to be over 1,500,000, with that of the entire district numbering 3,695,077...
for secondary education, and later to the Government College in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
for higher education.
Shabeg Singh was an outstanding football and hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
player, and excelled in athletics. At the age of 18 years he had equaled the India records in 100 meters sprint and was the District Broad jump champion. However, even though he had a natural ability for sports he did not wish to pursue that as a career, his mind was on the army, which was considered a noble profession. He excelled in studies and generally topped his class.
Indian Army
The Indian Army Chief, Field Marshal Manekshaw specially selected Shabeg Singh, then a brigadier, putting him in-charge of Delta Sector with headquarters at Aggartala. He was given the responsibility of planning, organizing and directing insurgency operations in the whole of Central and East Bangladesh. Under his command were placed all the Bangladesh officers that had deserted from the Pakistan Army. These included Col Osmany and Maj Zia-Ur-Rehman.Zia Ur Rehman later became the President of Bangladesh. Starting from about January to October 1971, the insurgency operations gradually grew to such an intensity that by the time the war started, the Pakistan army in East Bengal had completely lost their will to resist.The Indian Govt. did not want the world to know that the Indian Army was training and directing the Bengali insurgents so all activities were very secret. Shabeg was so thoroughly involved in these clandestine operations that for five months from December 70 to April 71, his family had no news about his whereabouts. They believed he was till in Nagaland and wondered why he did not write because he had always been regular in writing home to his wife. In April 1970, the first letter was received from the Civilian address of a Merchant shop in Aggartala and his name was written as S. Baigh, such was the nature of secrecy maintained of the Army's involvement in the insurgency movement. The wife was quite confused and the family wondered what was going on because the letter was very brief and just said, "don't worry I am ok.”
Meanwhile as the Mukti Bahini got bolder, the Pak Army in the East began to grow demoralized due to the onslaught. It got so widely dispersed in trying to contain the 'Mukti Bahini' that when the Indian Army launched its operations in Nov. 1971 they were able to walk through to Dacca, virtually unopposed. Over one hundred thousand enemy troops with the complete general staff surrendered, leading to the emergence of Bangladesh. The credit for this great achievement was largely due to the efforts of Shabeg Singh, who spent day and night organizing, motivating and training young Bengali youth to fight for their homeland. Such was the motivation of a Bengali youth force known as Mukti Bahini and so perfect the direction of their operation that no senior administrative officer felt safe in Bengal. Guerilia strikes were launched on five star hotels and on ships in Chittagong harbor to drive home the extent of power, which the Mukti Bahini wielded. Strategic bridges were destroyed, factories closed and movement within Bangladesh restricted resulting in a paralysis of the economy.
No doubt it was a cakewalk for the Indian Army when the actual operations were launched. The Indian government promoted Shaheg Singh to the post of Major General and awarded him the Param Vashist Sewa Medal in recognition of his services. He had earlier been awarded the Ati Vashist Sewa Medal also. He was made General Officer in Command of MP Bihar and Orissa. The Jaya Pyakash Narayan movement had started during 1972-73 and became a serious threat to the Indira Gandhi Govt. The Police were sympathetic with JP and his followers, so the Government decided to use the Army. Gen Shabeg was asked to arrest JP and take some harsh measure against his followers but he refused saying this was not his job.
The result was that the Congress Govt. later instituted a CBI inquiry to harass him on cooked-up charges and he was out posted of the area. After the Indo-Pak war, all the Pakistani POWs were under his jurisdiction and senior General Staff were kept at Jabalpur that was also the HQs of MP.Bihar and Orissa area. Due to jealousy of certain senior army officers, he was not given the command of a Division, which was a move of the Army for denying him promotion. Here was a field commander with so much war experience-denied command of a combat formation. Why so? Only to do deny him promotion when his name came up. While he was posted as GOC of the UP Area HQs in whose jurisdiction the Kumaon Regimental Center is placed, it was found that the commander of the Kumaon Military Farm had given a large sum money to the Chief, Gen Raina, who was himself from the same regiment. A court of inquiry discovered that General Raina (a Kashmiri Brahmin), Army received over two hundred thousand rupees from the Kumaon farm to meet expenses for his daughter's marriage.
The General's Stand against Corruption
When this information was brought to the notice of the General Office Commanding, Shabeg Singh; he told Gen Raina about the findings of the Court of Inquiry and requested the chief to return the amount as the Military farm of the Kumaon Regt was already running a loss. The result was that Gen Shabeg was promptly posted out of this indiscretion and the inquiry hushed up.The forthwith posting was an unprecedented action because peacetime postings had never been conducted on such an emergency basis. Soon after that the Army instituted a court of inquiry against Gen. Shabeg Singh which dragged on for one year till the date of his retirement on May, 1 1976. The main charge against the General was that he had accepted a plaque valued at Rs 2500 as a gift on his posting out of the Jabalpur area HQs. -Even though a similar present had been given to his predecessor and it had been common for senior officers to accept such gifts. However, in the case of Gen. Shabeg it suddenly became an offense. Some other flimsy charges were also leveled against the General a charge was brought against the lands associated with his official residence to be used for cultivation and another permitting resale of goods purchased in the area HQ's Canteen. These practices had been going on long before the Gen. had taken command of the area in 1972.
That the Indian Government, in concert with the Army Chief, was on a witch hunt became perfectly clear, when one day prior to Gen. Shabeg's retirement, on April 30, 1976 the hero of 'Mukti Bahini', a highly decorated general with both the PVSM and AVSM, one who had been actively involved in every operation the Indian Army had fought since his joining the service and who had spent the major portion of his life in field areas far from his family—sacrifycing time with his wife and children, was suddenly dismissed from the Army.
Such was the treatment meted out to one of the nation's bravest and hardest working soldiers and outstanding Generals. The Indian government and some senior Army officers went so far as to dubb him, after Operation Blue Star in 1984, as 'disgruntled' and frustrated, only because he, like his illustrious ancestor, was defending his ideals, community and beliefs in what he saw as an attack aimed at bring harm to the Golden Temple.
Gen Shabeg Singh was convinced, even while he was still serving in the Army, that the Government of India was curbing the freedom of Sikhs all over India. He was aware of the discrimination against Sikhs in denying them promotions and the general hostility of the Govt. (who were intent upon on reducing the numbers of Sikhs in the Army); the general reduction in the numbers of Sikhs in the Army and the policy of the Govt. towards Sikhs in Punjab by denying them capital industries (by restricting Sikh farmers to the planting of wheat and other crops whose prices were controlled so as to deny them any meaningful reward); the denial of full and fare shares of river waters, all of which he viewed as a part of an overall conspiracy to deny Sikhs the same rights of other citizens of India.
Sikh demands for autonomy were treated as treachery and anti-patriotic by the Govt, and the "free" press vociferously branded the Sikh demands as secessionist. The beleaguered Sikhs had no way to voice their grievances, they were not properly organized, they had no press which commanded international attention. The Akali party was painted as a party of uneducated, unlettered, obscurantists Sikhs so that those belonging to the Sikh intelligentsia shied away from the organization. The Akalis in turn were suspicious of any Sikhs who had been part of the Government and were suspicious of their loyalties.
This resulted in a growing gap between the Sikh Intelligentsia and Sikh politicians. Retired Sikh Army officers as well as Civil Administration preferred to join the Congress rather than a Sikh political party.
In 1977, Gen Shabeg Singh decided to throw-in his lot with the Akali Party as it was the only party in Punjab which was Sikhism oriented instead of Congress which was more of a secular party. He met Sardar Gurcharan Singh Tohra and offered to work as a soldier of the Panth. The shrewd SGPC president was initially hesitant and distant but gradually was won over by the sincerity of the general and started seeking his advice on important matters like allowing the participation of the Sikh Intelligentsia and ex servicemen with the Aakli Morcha.
Attacks on the General's Family
It was the way of Shabeg Singh that once he took a decision, he stuck to it and refused to be shaken from his resolve. His brother, who was progressive and a successful farmer and an active political worker in the Terrai (state of UP in North India) at Bazpur became the first victim of the Government's oppression on the General's family. The local Congress leader along with the police connived to finish him and he was killed by the Congress leader in 1978. The same congressman has ever since been terrifying the Sikhs in that area. The loss of his younger brother, was a big blow to Shabeg Singh but his resolve was not weakened.
The general and his family members were harassed, the CBI tried to implicate the general in a case of alleged misappropriation of wealth and dragged on the case till 1983 Dec., to embarrass and harass him. Eventually the case fell through due to its flimsiness and the acquitted general said to his son, "These CBI official knowing too well the weakness of their case and feeling ashamed of their vain attempts to slander me could not bear to look me in the face." For five years he had to bear with this govt. sponsored harassment only because he had opted to politics and not taken repressive means against Jaya Prakash Narain's movement a few years earlier.
Gen Shabeg Singh was very active during the Akali's peaceful agitation against Government policies of "seeing Sikhs as terrorists" and "river waters and transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab" of 1980 to 84. He courted arrest a number of times and won the hearts of the agitationist who saw that here was one leader who did not accept any preferential treatment in prison. He slept on the floor on a single rug and gave his cot to any old or infirm co-prisoner. He cared for their wants and protested to jail authorities for better conditions for the old and weak agitationists. He won the respect of his colleagues and other leaders like Prakash Singh Badal, Balwant Singh, H.S. Dhindsa and Vice Chancellor B.S.Samundri. Most Akali leaders liked and appreciated his work and sense of dedication. All those who associated with him were enthused by his Spirit He became popular with the people in Punjab and was soon fully engrossed in his service to the "'Panth". During the periods when he was out of jail he spent a major portion of his time in the village at Khiala where his mother lived He did not care for the old age comforts that he had planned for by constructing a comfortable house at Dehra Dun. His wife too came to stay in the village where he spent most of the time. This was in spite of her ill health due to a defective kidney and hypertension and the neglect of their house at Dehra Dun. Punjab had become a leaderless state in 1982- or perhaps there were two many leaders. The people of Punjab were confused. There was Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Parkash Singh Badal, Sant Longowal, Jagdev Singh Talwandi and a host of other big and small leaders. But everyone was suspect in the eyes of the people thanks to the Govt. propaganda and machination of Congress led by Gandhi.