Akali leader Prakash Singh Badal this week issued a statement Bhatinda on the Punjab river water dispute. For the first time, the Akali leader dealt with the issue at length, Earlier, he had tended to be cursory and evasive, The RajivLongowal accord, he stated, was no longer relevant and could not be made a basis of a solution Of the Punjab problem, Badal said he subscribed to the universally, Accepted riparian principle to resolve water disputes, Therefore, logically neither Haryana nor Rajasthan had any right to the river Water of all three Punjab rivers the Sutlej, the Beas and the Ravi, Similarly, Punjab had no claim to the water of the Yamuna river. Referring to a meeting at Chandigarh between the chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana, Badal asked Harcharan Singh Brar to spell out the contents and take the public into confidence. If Haryana wanted to seek court’s adjudication, let it do so and, in fact, his party, the Kali Dal, had already impressed upon Brar to take the matter to the Supreme Court. Badal also refuted allegations of his government accepting Rs 2 crore from the Haryana government in 1977 to construct the S.Y.L. canal. If that was so, why his government took the matter to the Supreme Court, Badal asked. The former Akali thief minister asserted that his party was determined to oppose the construction of the S.Y.L, canal.

‘Badal’s statement marks a new phase in Akali Dal’s approach to the water issue. Despite his denial, Badal’s government did, indeed, accept Rs2 crore for the S.Y.L, canal in 1977.and was willing, at one stage, even to hold a formal function to lay the foundation stone on the project. Better counsel prevailed on the Badal government which hot only cancelled the function but also went to the Supreme Court with a few issues for adjudication, This was done not so much due to the Akali government’s desire to save Punjab’s interests but because a clue was given by the then prime minister Morarji Desai Who, at a meeting with chief ministers of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, wondered as to how Rajasthan had been given water by Punjab when no Punjab river passed through Rajasthan. Desai further remarked that the people of Punjab were “fools when they allowed canals to be dug in their territories for illegal transfer of water. Still Badal had not challenged Rajasthan’ s claim to the Punjab rivers and had actually snubbed the government’s advocate for proposing the Rajasthan issue to be made a part of the writ petition. Further, the Akali Dal negotiated and accepted the Rajiv Longowal accord in 1985 which incorporated the S.Y.L. canal construction as a central issue. Badal, too, was a party to the accord “as a disciplined Soldier of the party,” as he put it. Nearly 75% of the canal construction work had been done during Surjit Singh’s Barnala’s chief ministership, according to Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal. Even two months ago, the Badal Akali Dal observed Sant Longowal’s death anniversary and held a conference at Longowal village where a resolution was passed pleading for implementation of the Rajiv Longowal accord. Further confirmation of the trend was available in the composition by Badal of his working committee and appointment of office bearers. All the main surviving negotiators and Supporters of the accord Surjit Singh Bamala, Kanwaljit Singh, Manjit Singh Khaira and Baldev Singh Mann have been taken as Office bearers.

In spite of all this, Badal still has the temerity to claim that his party had never accepted the clause in the accord pertaining to the S.Y.L. anal. Badal is telling a big lie. Yet, one should welcome his Statement, in the hope that his new stand will prove to be a turning point in the Akali Dal’s thinking on the crucial water issue. The new thinking may have been occasioned by the growing realization among the people of Punjab of their rights on the issue. So much so even the ruling Congress (I) in Punjab has moved away from its rabid anti-Punjab stand. The then chief minister Beant Singh had written to Prime Minister Rao about two years ago seeking annulment of all arrangements on the water issue after 1966. This stand was also endorsed by the present Punjab chief minister, In fact, Brar was a pioneer on the issue and his stand had cost him his irrigation and power portfolio. Badal now wants all arrangements made after 1947 ‘to be scrapped.

Let the Akali Dal chief institutionalize his thinking by incorporating his stand in a resolution of his party’s working committee and spell it out in his Dal’s election manifesto. Besides, the party should publicize the matter in a proper manner, so that the public at large is made aware of the justness of Punjab’s claim on the river water issue.

As proof of his sincerity, Badal should formally distance his party from the RajivLongowal accord. This is not possible without condemning all the signatories to the infamous accord as well as its contents and sacking men like Barnala, Mann, Khalra and Kamaljit Singh from the Badal Akali Dal or at least from the offices in the party they hold. Otherwise, people will be justified in concluding that it is yet another maneuver on the part of crafty Akali leaders who say one thing at one stage and another at another.

Article extracted from this publication >> November 10, 1995