WAter wAr in punJAb turns politiCAl

SAD strategy will be decided on 16 November after Cabinet session; Congress will start rally at Abohar, AAP is already holding protests.

The recent Supreme Court order saying that Punjab was bound to share Ravi-Beas river waters with Haryana and other states, has brought a political storm in the pollbound state with sources in the intelligence wing saying that the water war is going to become a contentious issue in the state to woo voters and especially target farmers at the grassroots level to get political mileage.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) started a dharna in the district’s Kapoori village against the Supreme Court verdict invalidating the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act. The party held a relay fast on Saturday.

Sources said that supporters are awaiting signals from their top leaders to start protests and the parties are keeping an eye on each others’ movements to remain ahead on the issue.

The sources also said that the water war between Congress as well as Shrimoni Akali Dal has become a political strategy by blaming each other to woo voters.

The Congress chief and former CM, Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh, blamed the Akali Dal government, saying that the government had failed to pursue the case in a proper way, whereas the SAD led by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has released an advertisement of Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh when the foundation stone was laid by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 8 April 1982.

Sources in the government said that the issue will take centre stage these days as the state is already in poll mode and political parties are always trying to encash on the public oriented issue. Sources talked of problems for SAD-BJP alliance to convince people as the BJP is in power in Haryana.

However, Vijay Sampla, BJP president in Punjab, claimed that they would support the government for not sharing a single drop of water with Haryana. Sources said that the Punjab government had already called a special session on 16 November in which it would further chalk out the next course of action and the government had already asked Advocate Gen- eral Ashok Aggarwal to find legal remedies for the case. The Punjab government is likely to bring a new bill on the inter- state water dispute in a move that could complicate the legal tussle with Haryana over sharing of water from the Beas and Sutlej rivers. The SAD-BJP government led by Parkash Singh Badal asked President Pranab Mukherjee to ignore the Supreme Court’s terming as “unconstitutional” a 2004 state law that scrapped all water- sharing arrangements between Punjab and its neighbouring states, including Haryana.

The dispute is likely to become a major issue with the opposition Congress turning the heat on the Badal government ahead of next year’s Assembly elections. Congress leaders have decided to hold state-wise protests and on Sunday, they would hold protests at Abohar in Punjab.

On Friday, all 42 Congress legislators resigned from the Assembly, a day after the party’s state president Amarinder Singh quit as Lok Sabha MP to protest the court’s ruling.

Singh’s government had enacted the Punjab’s Termination of Agreements Act to stop work on the 212-kmlong Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal.

Haryana, which is banking on the canal to bring water from the rivers to the state’s “dry and arid areas”, had moved the top court opposing the law.

Punjab government sources said the fresh bill was likely to be introduced at a special session of the Assembly, convened on 16 November to discuss the verdict.

The Badal government has vowed not to “allow a single drop of water” to be taken from Punjab.

“The Constitution clearly forbids the Centre from arrogating to itself the right to adjudicate on distribution of river waters among states. Grave injustice has been done to Punjab by the Centre, violating this Constitutional clause,” CM Badal said in his letter to the President. With tension rising, Haryana suspended state- run buses to Punjab, citing security reasons. “It is a precautionary measure in view of the prevailing situation,” said Sudeep Singh Dhillon, Haryana additional chief secretary, transport. Though the transport department claimed that only long-route operations have been temporarily stopped, some depots have stopped plying buses even on short routes.

Some Haryana leaders and khaps have threatened not to allow vehicles from Punjab to pass through the state if the Badal government does not accept the court verdict. In line with the Supreme Court’s verdict on Haji Ali dargah lifting the ban on women’s entry inside the tomb, Trupti Desai has urged the Nizamuddin dargah trustees in Delhi to proactively allow women to enter the inside chamber of the tomb and set an example for other dargahs in the country.

Desai, a gender equality activist and the founder of the Bhumata Brigade, a Mumbai-based social activist organisation, said, “We request religious shrines to practice gender equality and open their doors for men and women alike. We have no intention to intervene in religious practices. But discriminating against one gender on the basis of religion is not acceptable. I have not been to the Nizzamuddin dargah, but I have heard that it does not allow women to enter even though it is a renowned Sufi shrine.” Desai’s Bhumata Brigade had played an instrumental role in breaking the 400-year-old tradition of not letting women enter the Shani Shingnapur Temple, Maharashtra, and the inner sanctum of

The dispute is likely to become a major issue with the opposition Congress turning the heat on the Badal government ahead of the polls.