By Jagtar singh
Moga conferences have proved to be watershed for the Akali Dal in the past, the two major ones being the 75th anniversary conference and the second some years later close to the 2007 Assembly elections. The participation at both these conferences was unprecedented. Both these conferences paved the way for the Akali Dal to come into power. Would the December 18 conference which, as per the claims of the party President Sukhbir Singh Badal, going to be the biggest ever political conference in the state, would prove to be hat trick for the party? Jagtar Singh in his book \'Khalistan Struggle: A Non-movement\' has chronicled the 1995 conference where the slogan of Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabiat was forcefully raised.
Excerpts:
Moga Convention and Punjabiat
With the post Beant Singh period witnessing the politics of reconciliation in place of confrontation, the functioning of the democratic institutions was getting restored. The Akalis were in an aggressive mood. Despite the restoration of peace for which it should have got the credit, the Congress faced hostility from the masses, especially in the countryside, for the state repression and the violation of human rights.
Under the emerging scenario, the refrain of Shiromani Akali Dal at its Maghi convention at Muktsar on January 14, 1996, was getting justice to Punjab while seeking cooperation from all sections of Punjabis. The party targeted the Congress for the mess not only in Punjab but all over the country for which the policy of centralization was identified as the main culprit. The solution, in the opinion of the Akali Dal, was restructuring the Centre-State relations on true federal structure. The party gave a call to the people to remove the corrupt Congress government and facilitate the victory of the Akali Dal in the next elections while demanding an end to the state repression.
On the other hand, continuing with its radical line, the Akali Dal (Amritsar) reiterated the resolve to carry on the struggle through democratic and peaceful means for the implementation of the Amritsar Declaration. The party demanded that the Parliament pass a resolution apologizing for Operation Bluestar and killing of the Sikhs in November, 1984. The party expected the people of Punjab to reject the traditional Akalis.
The Political Affairs Committee of the Shiromani Akali Dal, at its meeting at Ludhiana on February 5, gave a green signal for poll alliance with the BSP for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. Earlier during the day, Badal and Tohra had a long meeting with BSP President Kanshi Ram at Chandigarh.
Shiromani Akali Dal\'s 75th anniversary conference at Moga in February proved to be watershed in the history of the party, especially in the post-militancy period, for the strategic ideological shift. It marked a major qualitative transformation for the party claiming itself to be the representative of the Panth to being the symbol of Punjab, Punjabis and Punjabiat. Though the seeds of this change can be traced to the earlier transitional period as the militancy ebbed out, the shift was formalized at the Moga conference on February 25, 1996. It was a bold attempt to broaden the base of the party. The Moga conference was a show fully backed by the rich and the middle peasantry in the state.
In its new policy and programme released on February 22 on the eve of the conference, the party stressed the need to amend Preamble to the Constitution to incorporate the expression \'federal\' to characterize the Republic of India as such, re-draw the Centre- State relations with defence, foreign affairs, currency and communication being in the Union List while transferring all other departments to the State List. The state legislature should have exclusive power and competence to legislate over all subjects in the State List. Article 356 and 365 empowering the Centre to dissolve state Assembly should be dropped. The Centre should not have the power or competence to destroy or dilute the ethnic, cultural and linguistic self-identity of the constituent states. Rajya Sabha should be reconstituted on the basis of equality of the states. The diversity of regional interests and multiplicity of minorities should be adequately reflected in the composition of Rajya Sabha. The party committed itself to the establishment of \'Haleemi Raj\' (Benign rule) wherein no community, territory, class or individual would dominate over others. The objective was laudable but remained confined to the paper. The party demanded immediate release of the Sikhs languishing in jails.
The programme stated: \"Stressing that the fundamental character of the Indian civilization is its pluralistic nature, reflected in the composite quality and structure of Indian society - enriched by diversity of languages, cultures and religion – and that this is the bedrock of national unity of the country, the Shiromani Akali Dal views with concern the homogenizing challenges to this characteristic of our society – the challenges threatening not only integrity of India but also the minorities as well. The contradiction between the rising Unitarian trends and forces and the pluralist tendencies is becoming acute and critical day by day, disorienting the national policy consequently\". But then the Sangh Parivar was no different as the Sikhs faced the challenge of homogenisation from the Hindu fundamentalist RSS as well and Badal had all along come under attack for being a stooge of this organization.
The 2-day Moga convention beginning February 24 was the most impressive show put up by the party in many years. Thousands of vehicles formed the procession on the first day and the highway from Ludhiana to Moga virtually remained jammed for several hours. It was only one way movement of traffic. The party used the opportunity to wash away the charges of aiding and abetting militancy by affirming complete faith in the democratic and constitutional methods and commitment to peace. The slogan of Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabiat formally materialized at this convention. Though no formal resolution was adopted to this effect, the formalization of this shift came to be known as the Moga Declaration. With the slogan of Punjabiat which Badal gave in his presidential address, effort had been made to broad base the party. The metamorphosis of Badal as leader of the Punjabis and not only of the Sikhs was complete. It was after this conference that the Akali Dal came to be ridiculed as the Punjabi party by the opponents in the Sikh political matrix.
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By Jagtar singh, Excerpts from his book -Khalistan Struggle: A Non-movement,
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