So, in 2007, 23 years after that conversation, if the Akalis and the BJP come together in a ruling alliance in a clean election where 76 per cent come out to vote, and where Akalis fielded seven Hindus and the BJP, four Jat Sikhs, what would you call it? The victory of two cynical rival communal forces? Or the arrival of a new politics, a nationalist alliance that bridges what almost became a disastrous communal divide though not passing the test of classical, ideological secularism. Whichever side you are on, it is a moment to savour, a moment of change, evolution and reconciliation.
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