The Indian Government failed to make good on its promise of transferring the city of Chandigarh on Republic Day (Jan. 26. 1986) to Punjab.
The transfer of Chandigarh was a key feature of the accord reached just summer between Mr, Rajiv Gandhi and Mr. Longowal that ‘was intended to settle the long simmering crisis of Punjab.
Chandigarh, a neat and modish city, raised on the foothills of the Himalayan range after independence is a Capital jointly shared by Punjab and Haryana
Haryana was to be compensated for its loss of Chandigarh by a realignment of the borders between Punjab and Haryana.
‘A Commission headed by Justice F.M. Mathew was set up to identify specific Hindi speaking areas that may be given to Haryana in lieu of Chandigarh. Although the identity of the villages were to be determined on a linguistic basis, the Commission was charged that an award of territory was to be regulated by the principle of contiguity.
‘The Mathew Commission has named about 80 villages and two towns as Hindi speaking but the ‘Commission notes that these areas are not contiguous to Haryana.
The Commission’s terms were revised twice in violation of the accord amidst news leak of broken contiguity which has so incensed the Haryana leaders that they led a protest of 15.000 strong to the nation’s capital of New Delhi.
Fearful of a Sikh backlash for not keeping faith with the accord, the Indian Government has placed the Army and paramilitary forces ‘on an alert.
Equally fearful of Hindu backlash for an inadequate compensation, the Indian Authorities have delayed the transfer of Chandigarh until such time as the leaders of Punjab and Haryana reach a negotiated settlement on redrawing of the border.
Most Indians who thought that the accord would end Punjab’s agony are now slowly changing their original assessment of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. They now cast Mr. Rajiv Gandhi in the same political would as his late mother, Mrs. Indira Gandhi who loved to drag her feet over solving Punjab’s ills and who encouraged confrontational type of politics.
- Mahal
Article extracted from this publication >> February 21, 1986
