The only Sikh devotional singer to be decorated with the Padma Shri—India’s fourth-highest civilian award – Mr Khalsa died in Amritsar’s Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, where he was under treatment for coronavirus-related illness.
Tweeting about his death, K. B. S. Sidhu, Special Chief Secretary, Punjab Disaster Management (COVID-19) wrote that his worsened due to his bronchial asthma.
The number of coronavirus patients in Punjab is now 46. With the 62-year-old's passing away, the state's death toll has risen to five.
There are conflicting media reports about a recent overseas trip undertaken by Mr Khalsa, to which his coronavirus infection is being attributed.
However, when SBS Punjabi contacted him on March 14, Mr Khalsa said that he hadn’t been out of India in the past three months.
He was due to visit Australia to perform kirtan (devotional singing) at various gurudwaras in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth amongst other places, on the upcoming Vaisakhi festival on April 13.
Due to the ever-increasing travel restrictions in place across the world over since early March, Mr Khalsa and the organisers of his visit had decided to postpone the programme.
He was conferred with the Padma Shri in 2009 by Pratibha Patil, the then President of India.
Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa being conferred the Padma Shri award by India's former president Pratibha Patil in 2009. Source: Facebook/Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa
Mr Khalsa retired as a Hazoori Raagi – gurbani singers who are experts of singing verses from Guru Granth Sahib as well as raags from Indian classical music, employed exclusively at Amritsar’s Golden Temple.
He was considered an institution of gurbani singing in Indian classical music, especially for his authority over ‘pakke raag,’ a highly-specialised skill which is fast vanishing amongst the modern Sikh devotional singers.
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