Sarbat Khalsa at Chabba

Who: Called by Simranjit Singh Mann's Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) and Mohkam Singh's United Akali Dal, with speakers from about 100 Sikh organisations, according to The Caravan. The Delhi gurdwara committee, the Pakistan gurdwara committee and a large section of the Sant Samaj stayed away, The Tribune reported.

What: The gathering followed the Takht heads' decision to pardon Gurmeet Ram Rahim, the Dera Sacha Sauda chief, and the wave of Beadbi in Punjab. When the SGPC refused the Manji Sahib hall in the Golden Temple complex, the meeting was held at Chabba village instead. The Tribune reported more than a lakh people on the day, and SikhNet put the crowd at hundreds of thousands by some estimates.

The assembly issued 13 resolutions, read out in English by Harinder Singh of the Sikh Research Institute. As reported by The Tribune and The Caravan, it dismissed the sitting Takht jathedars and named Jagtar Singh Hawara, a prisoner in the Beant Singh case, as officiating Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib, with Dhian Singh Mand to act for him. Amrik Singh Ajnala was named for Takht Keshgarh Sahib and Baljit Singh Daduwal for Takht Damdama Sahib. It stripped Parkash Singh Badal of the "Panth Rattan, Fakhr-e-Qaum" title, declared Lt Gen K. S. Brar and K. P. S. Gill tankhaiya, and set up a World Sikh Parliament. The appointments were to run until Vaisakhi, April 13, 2016, when another Sarbat Khalsa would meet.

Where: Chabba village, on the Amritsar to Tarn Taran road.

Why it mattered: The Tribune reported that the gathering gave its mandate against the Takht heads for allegedly working under the influence of the Badal-led Akali government. The Caravan notes that it reaffirmed the resolution of the Sarbat Khalsa of 1986. SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar answered the same day: "All resolutions announced today stand null and void principally." He argued that the Gurdwara Act of 1925 governs the appointment and removal of jathedars. The Punjab government's line, as The Caravan reports it, was that a gathering not called through Sri Akal Takht Sahib, held elsewhere and without the Panj Piare was illegitimate.

The Caravan's Amandeep Sandhu, a Sikh writing from outside Punjab, argued that radical groups had taken over a popular movement. He reported that an organiser had tweeted that the resolutions were settled before the meeting began, and that they were passed by jaikara without discussion.