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Guest Column: How the ground for SYL was permanently removed
The current Punjab government should be grateful that the issue now is not between them and those who want the canal — the Centre, Haryana or the SC. Badal effectively removed forever the government from the scene and put the real masters – the people, or more specifically the farmers – in charge of the narrative of their destiny
Year: 2016. It was like any other November afternoon. The then Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal looked pensive but determined as he listened to a group of his colleagues and lawyers. They faced an existentialist crisis on the perennial river water issue. The apex court had directed Punjab CM to ensure that its decree on the completion of the SYL canal was duly executed. Badal had already declared, “Let them hang me if they want. There will be no SYL as long as I am alive.” Strong words from a polite man. Everyone believed him but he was determined to ensure that there was no SYL even after he was gone from the world. Once flying in a helicopter over the barren SYL zones, Badal had looked down and then turned to me, and said, “From here, this winding canal looks to me like a rope around every Punjabi’s neck. As custodian of my people’s destiny, I want to cut this rope.”
All afternoon that November day, Badal had remained aloof, distant and worried – even a little peeved, a rare occurrence with the man of great poise. I suggested we declare inability to implement SC orders. He was satisfied. This for him was the easy part as he was ready to stake his political career and spend more years in jail rather than build the canal and betray his lifetime’s struggle over river waters. But he was clearly looking far beyond what I could see – as he told me later.
“Have the AG and FCR come?” he enquired. By now, we were alone in the room. I picked up the intercom and asked the guy downstairs about the visitors. AG general Ashok Agarwal was in, while financial commissioner ( revenue) Karan Bir Singh Sidhu was on the way. Before he turned to take the stairs down, Badal looked at me and said: “ Samajh gaye na jee.( You followed me, right?)” I had gladly followed what he had told me moments ago, and had even prepared in my mind a tentative draft for the media.
Mission de-notification
Badal had decided to de-notify the acquisition of the land acquired by previous governments for SYL and return these lands to the original owners - farmers free of cost. This was to be a landmark decision. And Badal knew he had no time to waste. The SC was to meet in five days to adjudicate on Haryana’s plea. He asked the AG about the legal and the FCR about the executive implications. Both were ready to stick their necks out for Punjab and supported the Badal plan. A cabinet meeting followed. It did exactly what Badal had wanted and the ground for SYL was literally and figuratively removed forever. He asked his son Sukhbir Singh Badal to put everything else in his life on hold and ensure that all revenue records are duly updated before the next hearing before SC in 120 hours flat. Sukhbir did not sleep a wink and delivered what his father and his state demanded. Revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia shored up the revenue staff to ensure it’s a done. Later, a gleaming Badal was to tell mediapersons, “ Hun na riha baans, te na bajegi bansuri.” With his rustic shrewdness beneath rural simplicity, Badal had delivered a coup de’tat, presenting a fait accompli to disarm all those intent on forcing Punjab to build the canal against all norms of justice.
Badal quickly accepted Sidhu’s suggestion to hand back the SYL land to farmers at Kapuri – the village where decades earlier the Akalis launched a morcha against then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s move over the canal issue.
A carefully crafted plan
The current Punjab government should be grateful that the issue now is not between them and those who want the canal — the Centre, Haryana or the SC. Badal has effectively removed forever the government from the scene and has put the real masters – the people, or more specifically the farmers – in charge of the narrative of their destiny. No state government worth its salt could now dare go against its own people to re-acquire the restored land.
But was it just rustic cunning? Badal firmly believed and was anguished that a grave injustice was being inflicted on Punjab in violation of all established national and international laws. From Cauvery to Narmada, never has the riparian principle been violated to deny a state its river waters. In fact, tribunal after tribunal had thrown non-riparian states out of the court rooms. This is the practice worldwide. Then why single out Punjab for this injustice, the former CM would often ask. Further, Badal was convinced that even the agreement signed by Congress chief minister Darbara Singh giving away Punjab’s right was ultra vires of the constitution: “ No agreement in which one party agrees to commit suicide is legally tenable” as the riparian expert Pritam Singh Kumedan would once tell Badal.
For the record, Punjab is being asked to build the canal regardless of whether any water can actually flow through it or not – a global first. Punjab does not claim any water from any river flowing through any other state, including Haryana. It’s hard to convince Punjabis why national and international laws and principles must be violated just to deprive them of their legitimate natural right.
After what Badal did that November afternoon, I don’t see any elected government in Punjab having the audacity to even think of being a party to snatching back from farmers and from Punjab what has been restored to both by the then Akali government As for the argument that Punjab has excess water and that it actually faces floods, trust Punjabis to have the good sense not to drown themselves just to spite others.
( The author, a long-time adviser to Parkash Singh Badal, is a freelance contributor. Views expressed are personal)
