Chohan lived life by crafting grandiose political dreams and making dramatic gestures. He began as a medical doctor before he developed political ambitions. First he chose the conventional route: Won a seat in the Punjab Legislature as a candidate of Republican party, joined the Akali-led coalition government and rose to become a minister. Loss in a mid-term election upset him so much, however, that before you knew it he had turned an ideologue of Khalistan.

The next you heard about him was when he left the country. Once abroad, he set up the Republic of Khalistan, declared himself President of its government in exile, floated currency and issued passports — all this while living in England, far away from the heat of militancy and violence in Punjab. He made provocative statements and grabbed newspaper space. In the process, he gathered a motley crowd of camp followers among the Sikh diaspora.

Then he made the grave mistake of making what he thought was a triumphant return to Punjab. It is a separate matter that his return had become possible thanks ironically to the constitution-minded judiciary of India. Yet by this time, the Khalistan movement had all but died. He said he was determined to revive it, even though it would now be through democratic means. To that end, he set up a Khalsa Raj party. Results of recent elections showed, however, that his dream had no takers ‘back home’. He was let down by those whose ‘cause’ had brought him back to India.

As I read the news of his dying unnoticed in a lonely room in the hinterland of Punjab, I wondered whether he was a modern day Don Quixote or simply an ambitious and publicity-hungry political trickster.

Whatever the case, now that he is dead, one thing stands out even more sharply. He was utterly irrelevant in his homeland. His political space, if any, was among those who choose to dream about homeland far away from their homeland. These are the people who will never return home to fight for justice but would be satisfied embracing someone like Chohan. May be, this ironic twist to his life tells us something about the nature of politics in the age of globalisation in which media spotlight could replace popular mandate, and shadows could appear much longer than reality. For a while.

The writer is professor, department of political science, Panjab University, Chandigarh