The Rajiv–Longowal Accord was an accord signed by

Indian Prime Minister The prime minister of India (ISO: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the e ...

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian statesman and pilot who served as the prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the Assassination of Indira Gandhi, assassination of his mother, then–prime ...

and the Akali leader,

Harchand Singh Longowal Harchand Singh Longowal (2 January 1932 – 20 August 1985) was the President of the Akali Dal political party during the Punjab insurgency of the 1980s. He had signed the Punjab accord, also known as the Rajiv-Longowal Accord with Rajiv Gandhi ...

, on 24 July 1985. The government accepted the demands of Shiromani Akali Dal, which, in turn, agreed to withdraw its agitation. The accord attracted opposition from several orthodox Sikh leaders of

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

, as well as from the politicians of

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

. Some of its promises could not be fulfilled because of the disagreements. Longowal was assassinated by the Sikh militants opposed to the accord.

Provisions

The following were the provisions of the accord:

Opposition

Punjab

On 26 July, Longowal announced that the accord had been unanimously approved by a congregation of former MPs, MLAs, ministers and jathedars. However,

Gurcharan Singh Tohra Panth Rattan Shiri Gurcharan Singh Tohra (24 September 1924 – 1 April 2004) was a president of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), a Sikh body in charge of controlling Gurdwara (Sikh places of worship). He died of a heart attack i ...

(SGPC President) and

Prakash Singh Badal Parkash Singh Badal (8 December 1927 – 25 April 2023) was an Indian politician and Sikh rights advocate who served as the 8th Chief Minister of Punjab from 1970 to 1971, from 1977 to 1980, from 1997 to 2002, and from 2007 to 2017, the longes ...

opposed every clause of the accord. Even after a meeting between Longowal, Tohra, Badal and

Surjit Singh Barnala Surjit Singh Barnala (21 October 1925 – 14 January 2017) was an Indian politician who served as the 11th chief minister of Punjab state from 1985 to 1987. Following that he served as the governor of Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Andhra Prades ...

, the differences persisted. On 25 July, a group of Akali Dal leaders rejected the accord and called it a "sell-out". Joginder Singh, the father of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, presided over an Akali Dali meeting in which he described Longowal, Barnala and Balwant Singh as traitors to the Sikh ''panth''. The resolution passed at the meeting stated that those leaders did not represent the Sikh masses and accused Longowal of diluting the Anandpur Sahib Resolution.

Haryana

The Haryana Chief Minister, Bhajan Lal, the HPCC (I) President Sultan Singh approved of the accord. However, the five opposition parties in Haryana - Lok Dal, BJP, Janata Party, Congress (S) and Congress (J) - declared that they would observe Haryana bandh on 31 July to protest the accord. After a rally in Rohtak, 29 members of the Haryana State Assembly resigned on 9 August. The protesters objected to the following: * Consideration being given to the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, which the protestors believed to be the root cause of the trouble in Punjab * Soft treatment being meted out to those who had deserted the Army * "Absolutely vague" settlement regarding the territories that would be transferred to Haryana in lieu of Chandigarh * Imposition of a ceiling on the use of the Ravi-Beas waters as per the current use: the protesters pointed out that Punjab was using more water than its allocated share, but Haryana was using less water than its share * Uncertainty regarding who will control the

headworks Headworks is a civil engineering term for any structure at the head or diversion point of a waterway. It is smaller than a barrage and is used to divert water from a river into a canal or from a large canal into a smaller canal. at Web archive An ...

References

External links