India’s efforts to transfer Punjab’s river water to the neighboring Hindu states was effectively frustrated by the Sikh freedom movement which, of course, had an independent Punjab as its goal, With the weakening of the movement, the old agenda is back. That explains the renewed controversy on the Sutlej Yamuna Link canal. The S. YL. Canal was originally Indira Gandhi’s idea just as the Rajasthan canal and the Bhakra Mainline canal projects were Nehru’s ideas. The two canals were dug up in mid-50 when the people of Punjab, particularly Sikhs, had very little knowledge of the state’s constitutional nights. Just as the S.Y.L. canal was dug up largely through the Akali government led by Surjit Singh Barnala, the other two canals, designed to irrigate Haryana and Rajasthan, were the products of an Akali Congress(1) understanding. It was an Akali revenue minister Ajmer Singh who had organized acquisition of land for the two canals. The most sinister aspect of the Rajiv Longowal accord was the repetition of the old story of Akali betrayal of Punjab in respect of the Bhakra Mainline canal and the Rajasthan canal. A vast majority of Sikh public opinion at present has grown conscious about the rights of Punjab. That is precisely why Akali leaders are now reluctant to barter Punjab’s water for political power that had been the hallmark as well as tragedy of Sikh politics until 1986. Most Punjabi Hindus were not only unconcerned about the proposed transfer of water to Hindu majority states but in many cases were actual collaborators with Delhi and its designs. Beant Singh merely represents that school of thought. He, after all, was elected with almost 100% Hindu votes. One can even pay a left-handed tribute to the Punjab chief minister: he is not disloyal to his electorate. Beant Singh wants work on S.Y.L. construction resumed as early as possible. His statement that the then Akali chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had accepted money from the Haryana government to dig up the SYL canal is factually correct. Badal’s counterstatement that he had later filed a petition to the Indian supreme court questioning Haryana’s and Rajasthan’s night to receive Punjab water had been withdrawn by the Congress(1) government in 1981. This counterstatement is also equally correct on facts. Strangely, neither Badal nor Beant Singh makes any mention of the Rajiv Longowal accord and its provisions regarding the water issue. The accord provides for completion of the SYL canal. It was designed by Rajiv Gandhi. The aim was obvious: complete the canal and present the people with a fate accomplish. The law will thus be silenced which seemed even to him also that it was on Punjab’s side. There was an unwritten clause of the accord. Akalis will be allowed to form a government in Punjab. This arrangement was almost an amended form of the Akali Congress “coalition” of the mid50’s. Badal was a party to the Rajiv Longowal accord indirectly, if not directly. He had made a public statement before being nominated by the long walled Akali Dal as the party’s candidate for the 1985 Assembly election that he would honor the accord “as a disciplined soldier of the party.” It is interesting to note that immediately after the accord was signed, Badal and Tohra had described it as a stab in the Panth’s back. Thus, substantially, Badal at one or the other stage had been a party to the accord. That explains his silence on the accord. But his new posture on the issue is welcome provided he is sincere in his profession. Such sincerity cannot be vouch fed unless Akalis unequivocally reject the Rajiv Longowal accord through a reasoned statement passed and approved by their working committees and apologize to the Sikh masses for their folly of accepting the accord and projecting it as a boon to Punjab and Sikhs. It is not an academic matter unrelated to the present-day reality, There are powerful forces the Congress(I) central government, the C.P.1., the C.P.(M), vast sections of the Janata Dal and the BJP who still swear by the Rajiv Longowal accord. India’s minister Rajesh Pilot stated only last week that the accord is still relevant to Punjab, While Badal gets credit for taking a fairly correct view Subject to his sincerity in action on the water issue, Mann remains confused, He himself is not speaking these days but posters issued on behalf of his party in the recent Jalandhar by-election confirm this assessment. He countered Punjab’s rights to it’s never water by putting in opposition the question of Sikh human rights in Punjab. There is no contradiction between the two. Assuming that Khalistan one day becomes a reality. Will, in that case, the question of Punjab’s rights to its rivers evaporates in thin air? Will Khalistan not need water? The water issue will, in fact, outlive the current political controversies. This is something very basic. Almost question of Sikh civilization which will continue to dominate its life for centuries. Even the most powerful governments in the world have not been able to reverse the flow of water once its tans, It is just about time that Sikhs do something now to recover their water before is too late and vested interests emerge stronger to oppose any such move in future. This aspect of Punjab’s problem had been well understood in the later phase of the movement by the Sikh underground leaders. Unfortunately, men like Mann do not pay any heed to the water issue. Mann’s altitude, historically speaking, represents the typical traditionalist psyche, a psyche that had been feeding the Sikhs with nonissues and leaving issues to the care of the devil. Let us hope the Akalis reverse their thinking and pay greater attention in focusing attention on understanding of issues rather than being content to raise hollow slogans, The water issue provides them with a historic Opportunity and a challenge, The SYL canal project has to be scrapped and the already construction portion dismantled and not used for fish culture. In addition, Punjab must recover its water now flowing through the Rajasthan canal and the Bhakra Mainline canal. This agenda is capable of telling the genuine from the spurious leadership in Punjab.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 18, 1993
