The Union government has once again demonstrated its willingness to accommodate the Akalis. The issue this time was the siege of three gurdwaras in Moga. It has lifted the siege following telephonic discussions between Sant Longowal and the Union minister for parliamentary affairs, Mr. Buta Singh. The Akalis, on their part, have decided not to send shaheedi jathas (do or die squads) to Moga. But this is no concession. The jathas were intended to force the siege and, therefore, became unnecessary once the authorities agreed to withdraw the BSF units surrounding the gurdwaras. It is, of course, not a sheer coincidence that the authorities agreed to withdraw the BSF units on Thursday (May 3). The jathas were to march to Moga on Friday (May 4) under an ultimatum issued by Sant Longowal on Wednesday (May 2). The connection is obvious. Both the government and the Akalis are apparently anxious to avoid a headlong collision which an attempt to force the siege would have meant and therefore devised a solution which has avoided the direct confrontation.
As was only to be expected, each side has tried to make it out that it has scored a point over the others. The government has been rather clumsy in its handling of the issue. It has not even known how to brief correspondents properly. It has spoken in two very different voices in New Delhi and Chandigarh. In the process, it has come out rather poorly. But that is a separate problem which we can set aside for the time being. To concentrate on the main question, while the government has claimed to have arrested 16 “terrorists” and seized some weapons and thereby tried to create the impression that the Akalis had agreed to both these actions, Sant Longowal has characterised the report of arrests as being totally unfounded and thereby sought to deny by implication that there has been a deal between him and Mr. Buta Singh. Perhaps both sides are trying to confuse the issue in order to save face. Perhaps both sides have made concessions in order to avoid a bloody clash. Just now it is not easy to establish the fact and draw up a balance-sheet. In fact a balance-sheet cannot be drawn till we know what happens next in a similar situation. If, for example, law-enforcing forces are fired upon from within a gurdwara next time as they were fired upon in Moga on April 26 and they do not seal entry to and exit from it in order to be able to apprehend the culprits, the implication would quite clearly be that the government blinked in Moga. If, indeed, it has blinked, it has invited a disaster on itself and the country. If it has not, it has laid the basis for assertion of its authority subsequently. One would need to wait and watch before one can fix the score in Moga.