The ‘pakodas’ on the table at Bhure Da Dhaba are piping hot, but the discussion taking place in a corner of the roadside eatery on the controversial Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal is far more heated.
Forty-five-year old Makhan Singh is agitated like many other farmers in poll-bound Punjab. The SYL canal – a long-pending project to carry Punjab river water to Haryana – is back in the headlines following a Supreme Court intervention and has infused further bitterness into already testy ties between the two neighbouring states.
For farmers like Makhan, it has brought to the fore their own water woes. “We don’t want Haryana to get Punjab’s water because we don’t have enough for ourselves,” the tall farmer says. “Leaders should set politics aside and find a solution to our problems,” he adds.
{{/usCountry}}For farmers like Makhan, it has brought to the fore their own water woes. “We don’t want Haryana to get Punjab’s water because we don’t have enough for ourselves,” the tall farmer says. “Leaders should set politics aside and find a solution to our problems,” he adds.
{{/usCountry}}The thirst for water
Elections to the state assembly are just months away and the contentious issue of SYL has shone a light on the plight of Punjab’s farming community. SYL is nowhere near taking off, but it has forced parties to stress their pro-farmer credentials.
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Successive Punjab governments have successfully stalled the canal – projecting themselves as the flag-bearers of farmers’ interests.
The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP dispensation has taken a defiant stand against the Supreme Court, which has held as unconstitutional a 2004 law that annulled water-sharing agreements with neighbouring states.
Punjab’s approach - cutting across the government and the Opposition - stems from the argument that “there’s not a drop to spare”.
Politics of a canal
Sitting beside Makhan at the dhaba, 28 kilometres west of Chandigarh, his uncle, Amrik Singh, says the parties are only providing lip-service. With or without SYL, farms in the state are not getting canal water and tubewells too have to be progressively dug deeper to reach the depleting water table.
The state government has ordered the land for SYL to be restored to farmers. But many in the nearby Chunni village, through which the canal was to pass, are not mollified.
“We don’t want the land back. We want water,” Amrik says.
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As a bright afternoon fades into a chilly dusk, Fatehgarh Sahib legislator Kuljit Nagra of the Congress, SAD district president Ranjit Singh Libra and advocate Amardeep Singh listen in across the table. Gurpreet Bhatti, the 43-year-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate for Amloh constituency in Fatehgarh Sahib, also joins the conversation.
“Our agenda is to save Punjab’s farmers,” assures Libra, sporting a “Proud Akali” badge.
Nagra agrees on the water scarcity, but not before taking a jab at the SAD for lacking “sincerity” and not making “sacrifices” on the SYL issue.
“The party that has made sacrifices will be benefited (in the election),” says the 51-year-old leader, referring to the resignations of Congress’s Amarinder Singh from the Lok Sabha and 42 party legislators from the assembly in November after the top court stayed the restoration of the canal land.
The AAP’s Bhatti, however, blames both the SAD and the Congress for “politicising an emotive issue”.
“Amarinder Singh (as Patiala MP in 1982) sent an invitation to (former prime minister) Indira Gandhi to start the digging of the canal. (Incumbent CM Parkash Singh) Badal acquired land in Punjab and took money from Haryana (for the construction work three decades ago),” he says.
As the din over the SYL debate grows, lawyer Amardeep raises his voice to be heard amid the noise made by vehicles whizzing past. “Parties are trying to gain mileage out of the issue,” he says. “There is no solution in sight,” he adds, pointing out that the apex court has ordered a status quo on the land acquired for SYL after the government decided to give it back to farmers.
The fate of SYL would ultimately be known after a protracted legal battle. For the moment, politicians are locking horns over it in the run-up to the elections. Both Akalis and the Congress insist they have done their bit to block the project to safeguard the state’s farmers’ interests.
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Five kilometers from Bhure Da Dhaba, the site through which the SYL canal was to pass lie covered in dried leaves. Impending elections have resurrected an almost-abandoned project pending since 1970s and added to the decibel levels.