Akali conference at Ludhiana endorses the Anandpur Sahib Resolution

Who: The Shiromani Akali Dal, at its 18th All-India Akali Conference. Jathedar Jagdev Singh Talwandi presided over the open session. Gurcharan Singh Tohra moved the first resolution, on federalism, and Parkash Singh Badal, then Chief Minister of Punjab, endorsed it.

What: On 28 and 29 October 1978 the conference passed twelve resolutions that endorsed the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, which the Akali working committee had adopted at Anandpur Sahib on 16 and 17 October 1973. The 1973 text sought an autonomous Sikh-majority region inside the Indian Union. The Ludhiana text kept the call for the pre-eminence of the Khalsa through special constitutional safeguards for Sikhs, and added a call for greater autonomy for all the states, with the Centre's powers limited. The twelve resolutions covered:

• a real federal shape for India, with the Centre's powers redefined;
• Chandigarh as Punjab's capital, Punjabi-speaking areas, control of headworks, the Ravi-Beas water award and Sikh recruitment to the army;
• economic goals, including an international airport at Amritsar and a stock exchange at Ludhiana;
• second-language status for Punjabi in neighbouring states, and proper Sikh representation outside Punjab;
• a broadcasting station at Sri Harmandir Sahib, paid for by the Panth;
• farm and labour measures, and the welfare of the scheduled castes.

Where: Ludhiana, Punjab.

Why it mattered: According to Wikipedia, the 1973 document was not publicised at the time, The Tribune reported the 1978 resolutions as separate items rather than as one text, and by the 1980s three versions of the Resolution were in circulation, so that politicians could choose the text that suited them. In 1982 the Akali Dal launched the Dharam Yudh Morcha to press for its implementation, and Sant Harchand Singh Longowal said the Sikhs had no design to leave India.