TARLOCHAN SINGH: THE MOSAIC OF PR MAN

Publicity chief of Bhakra Nangal Dam, Delhi Asian Games, setting up of Delhi Haat and Hauz Khas tourist complexes, serving as press advisor in Rashtrapati Bhavan in a turbulent period, member of the core team which strategised the media strategy of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in its nascent year, 1998… feathers in the glorious turban worn by Sardar Tarlochan Singh are many. This 87-year-old communicator par excellence along with 99-year-old archaeologist Braj Basi Lal, whose work on Indus Valley, Mahabharat and Ramayan sites are legendary, are some of the highlights of the Padma awards list of 2021. Singh and Lal are among the Padma Bhushan recipients of 2021.

Tarlochan Singh, serving as district public relations officer of Ferozepur in 1957, caught the attention of the then Punjab Chief Minister, Pratap Singh Kairon, who entrusted him the publicity of the niche Bhakra Nangal Project in 1958. After the dam was inaugurated in 1962 he was posted in Punjab Markfed, which is Asia’s largest cooperative marketing organisation. He was sent to erstwhile East Germany to learn about mechanised farming and was entrusted with publicising the introduction of harvesting combines in India. While in Markfed he produced the first Sikh calendar, highlighting Sikh history.

Gyani Zail Singh, the minister for cooperatives in Punjab, who oversaw Markfed, became the CM and Tarlochan Singh moved into the Chief Minister’s office in 1972. He was to remain with Zail Singh as his media advisor till 1988, when Gyani retired as President. 1984-88 was a turbulent period when the President of India had run-ins with the Prime Ministers, on Operation Blue Star and the Postal Surveillance Bill, inter alia. Zail Singh never got negative media, thanks to the skills and rapport of Tarlochan Singh.

Prior to moving to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Tarlochan Singh served as Media Director for the 1982 Asian Games. Post Rashtrapati Bhavan he headed the Delhi Tourism Development Corporation. Delhi Haat, Hauz Khas complex, and new areas like adventure tourism were pioneered by him.

In 1998 when the NDA was formed, Tarlochan Singh, who had overseen Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s publicity during the Lok Sabha election in Lucknow, was in the core team which strategised media outreach. He was appointed vice-chairman and later Chairman of National Commission on Minorities by the Vajpayee regime. In 2004 with the support of Chaudhary Devi Lal and Vajpayee he got elected to the Rajya Sabha as an Independent from Haryana.

Currently, Tarlochan Singh is heading a memorial committee for the martyrs of the Komagata Maru massacre of 1924—migrants from India travelling to Canada by a Japanese ship Komagata Maru, who were denied entry in Canada, were brutally fired upon and killed by police as they returned to Indian shores—a memorial is being built at Budge Budge on the banks of the Hooghly south of Kolkata at the spot where they were massacred. Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri laid the foundation of the memorial, which shall commemorate this event of colonial highhandedness.

In 1998 when the NDA was formed, Tarlochan Singh, who had overseen Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s publicity during the Lok Sabha election in Lucknow, was in the core team which strategised media outreach. He was appointed vice-chairman and later chairman of National Commission on Minorities by the Vajpayee regime.