From Panjwar to Parliament to pardes
The journey of Dr Gurdial Singh Dhillon
Dr Gurdial Singh Dhillon (August 6,1915 — March 23,1992), a resident of Panjwar village, was among the rare politicians who worked his way up from the grassroots level to the national and international stages. He started his career as the chairman of the Market Committee of Tarn Taran and took active part in the freedom movement. The nation’s first election in 1952 was also his first. He won in 1952 and did not lose a single election until 1977.
He served as the Tarn Taran MLA from 1952 to 1967, during which time he was not only named the Speaker of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha but also the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and the Committee of Privileges. Dhillon presided over the 57th Inter-Parliamentary Conference held in New Delhi in October-November 1969. He also attended the First Commonwealth Speakers’ Conference and Presiding Officers’ Conference held in Ottawa (Canada) in September 1969. He had the distinction of conducting and presiding over the Second Conference of Commonwealth Speakers and Presiding Officers held in India in 1970-71.
He emerged victorious in the 1967 and 1972 Lok Sabha elections from the Tarn Taran constituency. He was defeated by the SAD candidate in 1977 and 1980 but returned to Parliament in 1985 from Ferozepur. In addition to serving as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Dhillon became the Minister of Shipping and Transport in the Union Government. Between 1980-82, he served as the Indian High Commissioner to Canada and worked toward strengthening India-Canada relations. He was even a member of the Planning Commission from 1986 to 1988.
Dhillon was honoured with an LLD (Doctor of Laws) title by the Panjab University of Chandigarh in 1969, the Punjabi University of Patiala in 1971 and Kurukshetra University in 1973. He was also awarded the DLitt by Amritsar’s Guru Nanak Dev University in 1971, the honour of Doctor of Political Science by the Humboldt University in Germany and a PhD by the Sung Kuyun Kwan University in the Republic of Korea (1973).
His local college affiliations included the Shri Guru Arjun Dev Khalsa Senior Secondary School, SGAD Khalsa College and Mata Ganga Girls College in Tarn Taran. Although Dr Dhillon’s family currently resides in Delhi, they often visit the palatial residential complex in Panjwar.
