Forty years ago, the Shiromani Akali Dal split in one of the defining moments of Punjab's political history. The leaders changed, the factions changed, but the struggle between ambition and unity seems to have remained the same. Every split creates winners and losers within a party, but history often shows that the greatest beneficiary is an opponent waiting outside. Has the Akali Dal paid a far greater political price for its internal divisions than it ever gained from them ? And is the biggest lesson of 1986 that no political victory inside a party is worth the long-term cost of weakening the movement itself ?

Opinion