Union Home Minister Amit Shah stepped onto the stage for a BJP rally at Killi Chahlan village in Moga wearing a saffron turban, opening his address with Jo Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal and Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.
He told a Sikh-majority audience directly that Hindus have survived as a community only because of the supreme sacrifices of the Gurus. This was a big statement from second senior most leader of the BJP, which stands by Hindutva and strives for a Hindu Rashtra.
Shah explained that the saffron turban he wore was an expression of indebtedness, specifically towards Guru Tegh Bahadur, who gave up his life to protect Kashmiri Pandits and Hindus from forced conversions under Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
Equally striking was Shah’s decision to congratulate the gathering on the Nanakshahi New Year, the Sikh calendar that the BJP had never accepted. Its former alliance partner, the Shiromani Akali Dal, had got it withdrawn earlier on the basis of BJP’s objection. The Nanakshahi calendar, which shows Sikh festivals on dates independent of the Hindu Vikrami calendar, has been a subject of dispute.
Historian and author of books on the Akalis and Sikh issues Jagtar Singh said Shah’s acknowledgment and good wishes to people on the Sikh new year was a significant departure from its earlier position and was a studied gesture that the BJP was willing to accept Sikh distinctiveness. Shah’s speech was saturated with more symbolism. He invoked the legacies of Guru Ravidas and Bhagwan Balmiki, reaching out to the Dalits whose vote no party in Punjab can afford to ignore. He spoke of the Hindu-Sikh unity not as an assertion of sameness but as a partnership between distinct communities.
Shah paid tributes to Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. On the political front, he declared that the BJP would contest the state polls alone