Moga Declaration

Who: The Shiromani Akali Dal under its president Parkash Singh Badal. Left outside the new line was Simranjit Singh Mann, whose unity offer Badal turned down. Gurcharan Singh Tohra, the SGPC chief, was reported as a hawk who opposed a tie-up with the BJP.

What: In 1996 the Akali Dal held a political conference at Moga to mark its 75th anniversary. India Today, reporting in its issue of 31 March 1996, called it the biggest show of strength the Akalis had ever staged and "a watershed". It listed what the party did there:

• It made peace its theme in place of the old "panth-in-peril" cry.
• Its political resolution did not dwell on the Anandpur Sahib Resolution. It repeated the call for more autonomy for all states and named "halemi raj", rule based on compassion and equality, as its new goal.
• For the first time it opened its membership to non-Sikhs, and presented itself as the party of all the people of Punjab.

The Tribune later recorded the Moga resolution as "Panth, Punjab and Panjabiat".

Where: Moga, Punjab.

Why it mattered: The Tribune notes that the party grew out of the Gurdwara reform movement and until Moga took only Sikhs as members. Non-Sikhs were nearly 43 per cent of Punjab's people, India Today noted, and Badal could not win on the Sikh vote alone. He also promised Hindus that, if his party was voted to power, "militancy" would not be allowed to raise its head, India Today's word. The party had already made a poll pact with the BSP. In 1997 it allied with the BJP and returned to power, an alliance the Tribune called "unlikely". After the change many in Punjab began to say the Akali Dal had turned into a "Punjabi Dal".

Not everyone followed. India Today said Mann's harder line still struck a chord with some Sikhs who nursed a grievance against the government, and that Mann had an ally in the Damdami Taksal. By 2003 some Akalis wanted the Moga resolution revived, along with a clearer line between the Akali Dal and the SGPC.