Badal, Tohra unity comes late, says Tarlochan

As estranged Akali leaders Parkash Singh Badal and Gurcharan Singh Tohra get ready to bury the hatchet, National Minorities Commission chairman Tarlochan Singh, who played a key role in bringing them closer, said ‘‘it is already too late for their unity’’.

Singh said the ‘‘useless’’ feud between Tohra and Badal had taken heavy toll of the ‘‘interests’’ of the Sikh community. ‘‘Smaller communities living in a bigger milieu need to be united and here they wasted away their energies instead of working for people all these years,’’ he said.

Three months ago, Badal and Tohra had kept Singh and supporters waiting at a function here, where they had promised to show up together. Singh told The Indian Express that with Badal offering to apologise before the Akal Takht there was virtually no hurdle in the way of Akali unity now. Sources close to the two leaders said the two Akali Dals, Shromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Sarb Hind Akali Dal (SHAD), may forge unity within a week or so.