Peoples’ man and two-time SGPC member Surjit Singh Kalabula passed away today after a brief illness, causing a setback to the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar).

Surjit Singh Kalabula, two-time member of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, elected from Dhuri constituency as a nominee of the Simranjit Singh Mann-led Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) passed away today evening after a brief bout of pneumonia. He is survived by his wife and two married children.

55-year-old Jathedar Surjit Singh, general secretary and PAC member of the party was an endearing personality and honest to the core. Though his party did not have an overwhelming presence in the SGPC, he made his way to the Executive Committee of the SGPC under erstwhile President Prof. Kirpal Singh Bandungar.

“Surjit Singh Kalabula enabled many needy people to join the SGPC rank and fine. He was instrumental in ensuring grants to hundreds of cancer patient families under the SGPC scheme for assisting cancer patients. He set up libraries in many Gurdwaras and village community centres of his constituency Dhuri.”

A people’s man, he enabled many needy people to join the SGPC rank and fine since he was elected in 2004. He was instrumental in ensuring grants to hundreds of cancer patient families under the SGPC scheme for assisting cancer patients. He set up libraries in many Gurdwaras and village community centres of his constituency Dhuri.

Dedicated to the welfare of the Sikh community, he travelled the length and breadth of not only his own constituency but was a leader respected all over Sangrur district and the Punjab. He had the old Akali spirit in him and “was never at home.” He wandered from one village to another doing “Dharam Parchar”, rehabilitation of drug abuse victims and resolving personal and community disputes.

Speaking to the World Sikh News, party leader Gurnaib Singh Sarpanch from Sangrur said, “It is a great loss to Sangrur and the party.  He was a gentleman politician fully dedicated to the poor and the needy.”

His father Jaswant Singh was a leading political personality of his times. An associate of former party stalwart, late Prof. Sukhjinder Singh from Sangrur, the ever hard-working and devout Surjit Singh Kalabula was fully committed to the idea of Sikh nationalism. He would invariably engage with this writer in person and on phone to discuss mechanisms to overhaul the deteriorating systems of the SGPC.

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When I met him last a couple of weeks back, he discussed in detail how to pass the baton of Sikh political activism to the next generation. Sadly, the moment for him came too soon. May Akalpurakh bless him!