WSN editor Jagmohan Singh does a quick scan of the career graph of teacher-turned-diplomat-turned politician Harinder Singh Khalsa, who yesterday joined the Bharatiya Janta Party.

In a span of three decades, the aggressively low caste-conscious and obstinate Harinder Singh Khalsa has travelled a journey from being an Indian diplomat in Oslo to a part-time human rights activist to becoming a Panthic hero for relinquishing his diplomatic post after the Indian army attack on Darbar Sahib in June 1984 to Member Parliament to SGPC secretary to Member Parliament again. So far so good.

Sadly, he reached the nadir of his career yesterday by joining the right-wing, sworn enemy of minorities –Bharatiya Janta Party.

In all these thirty years, one can recall the fame and honour that was showered by the community on this ‘gentleman politician’ but Harinder Singh Khalsa did not return back in the same coin.

To his credit, in the last five years, since he accidentally became a Member of Parliament from the Fatehgarh Sahib constituency, as a nominee of the Aam Aadmi Party, he he did constituency-related work and distributed largesse to schools, villages and forums from his constituency fund.

He did not provide leadership either on the Punjab front or on the Panthic platform. During these years, the community and the people of Punjab saw many ups and downs, faced umpteen problems, but Harinder Singh Khalsa made no noise about them in Parliament. In fact, his parliamentary record does not match his constituency work.

The fact of the matter is that all these years, he was cogitating about which party to join and ended up with Modi’s BJP.  He is strongly fickle-minded.

It would not be wrong to say that bureaucrats who have served at the highest echelons of power find it extremely uncomfortable to play second fiddle to anyone, even in politics. In Punjab, after the last general election, AAP party head Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab incharge Sanjay Singh made it even more difficult for him and many others. Party discipline, decorum and building a democratic fibre does not come easily.

The Sikhs be damned. Harinder Singh Khalsa is now worried about taking the country forward with the BJP.

Will he contest elections from any constituency in Punjab? He says he will not and perhaps he will not. He would like to do a ‘Sidhu’ for the BJP who is looking for ‘Sikh’ faces other than the Akali Dal faces for their campaign.

His illustrious father Gopal Singh Khalsa, who was a seasoned politician and social worker, must be turning in his grave at the turn of events.  For how long will Harinder Singh Khalsa remain with the BJP? Well, that depends upon who forms the next government in New Delhi.