CHANDIGARH: For the first time after many years, the Badal Akali Dal appears to have distanced from the Rajiv Longowal accord. As a part of the Akali Dal (Longowal), the Badal group leader had continued elections on the basis of the accord in 1985, even after they parted company in March 1986; the group leaders never denied their allegiance to the accord. The group faced exposure of its stand when the political situation zeroed in on the SYL canal on the eve of the recent floods in Punjab. The public hue and cry against the canal actually helped to unmask the sinister aspects of the Rajiv Longowal accord; it was SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra who took the initiative to denounce the accord. He did so at a meeting at Longowal where Sant Longowal’s death is observed annually. Badal followed it up by saying publicly this week that the accord could not be the basis of A Solution to the Punjab problem. In an interview, Badal said that his party could never accept the Eradi tribunal’s report on the sharing of Punjab river water. Badal, however, did not attack the accord’s more sinister provision of completing the construction of the SYL canal. The statements of Badal and Tohra make it clear that the Akali group is still ambiguous about its stand on the water issue; the group has refrained from asserting Punjab’s total rights to all never water of Punjab and is willing to come to an agreement with Delhi and the neighboring states.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 10, 1993
