The Big Story: Canal conundrums

Poll-bound Punjab has been thrown into disarray. On Thursday, the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, which summarily ended all its water-sharing agreements with Haryana and other neighbouring. Passed by the state assembly in 2004, the act terminated Punjab’s obligations to construct the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal, which was to take the waters of the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej from Punjab to other states. In response to the court ruling, Congress MLAs in Punjab have resigned en masse. As polls approach, so does the season of competitive politics.

Over the decades, the conflict over the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal has gathered political resonance in Punjab and Haryana, stirring up passions and inspiring acts of political derring-do. The dispute started after Haryana was carved out of the state of Punjab in 1966 and staked a claim on the waters of the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. In 1976, the Centre decided to allocate a portion of these waters to Haryana. The canal, which was to be the conduit, would run through Punjab for 122 kilometres and then into Haryana for 92 kilometres. Despite loud protests by Punjab, most of the Haryana section of the canal was completed by 1982. But in 1985, then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi signed the Punjab Accord with Akali Dal president Harchand Singh Longowal, taking note of Punjab’s grievances with the water-sharing arrangement and setting up a tribunal to look into them.

But these accords and attempts at reconciliation were lost in a decade of insurgency in Punjab, and after 1990, work on the canal has virtually stopped. Last year, the Punjab assembly passed the Punjab Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal Land (Transfer of Property Rights) Bill, which stopped land acquisition for the canal, and levelling work along the length of the channel dug so far had started. This was in preparation for returning the land to farmers in the surrounding area.

In the months to come, Punjab can expect many more acts political brinkmanship. Trouble is, almost all parties in the mix have conflicting interests in different states. Take the Bharatiya Janata Party, in power at the Centre and in Haryana, and in coalition with the Shiromani Akali Dal in the Punjab government. While the party at the Centre has maintained a studied neutrality, the government in Haryana has hailed the Supreme Court decision. But if the BJP wants to make headway in Punjab, it will have to show some heat on the canal, which is an emotive poll issue.

Also caught in a quandary is the Aam Aadmi Party, in government in Delhi and making a serious bid for power in Punjab. According to the water-sharing agreement, Delhi is also supposed to receive supplies from the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal. The AAP government came to power in water-scarce Delhi making extravagant promises on supply and can hardly back down now. But what of its interests in Punjab?

The Congress, a spent force in Delhi and diminished at the Centre, seems to have gone all in for Punjab. With the party’s prospects in the state looking good, it is bound to keep up the kind of high-octane gesture seen on Thursday, when all its MLAs resigned. The SAD, as a regional party, will no doubt feel pressured to make similar gestures of protest. As the poll campaigns progress, the theatrical quotient is set to soar.

The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day’s big story

  • Vipin Pubby writes how the Sutlej Yamuna Canal reveals the hypocrisy of all political parties in the mix.
  • Ipsita Chakravarty explains an old conflict between Punjab and Haryana.

Political pickings

  1. Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar says that, “as an individual”, he questions India’s no first-use nuclear policy.
  2. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi lands in Japan, and the two powers get ready to talk about a civil nuclear cooperation agreement, the question that looms is whether India will accept a “nullification clause”.
  3. According to the Jammu and Kashmir health department’s data, over 1,200 children were among the 9,000 injured in four months of protest.
  4. Opposition parties and the Bharatiya Janata Party continue to spar over demonetisation, The Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati alleges foulplay while the Trinamul Congress’s Mamata Banerjee urges all opposition parties to unite.

Punditry

  1. In the Hindu, MK Narayanan writes that the Maoists are still a strong force, and while operations like that in Malkangiri last month might help diminish them, the government needed to tackle the situation from more than just a law and order perspective.
  2. In the Indian Express, Patrick French on a new world order where the rules have disappeared, post the election of Donald Trump.
  3. In the Telegraph, Ruchir Joshi goes in search of silver linings after the Trump victory.

Giggles

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Dhirendra K Jha reports that after demonetisation the idol at the makeshift Ram Janmabhoomi temple at Ayodhya has seen a spike in donations in high-value currency notes:

“An unusually large numbers of devotees, who have thronged the temple town to participate in the week-long Kartik Mela that started on November 8, are offering Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes generously to the deity as they appear anxious to save lower denominations to pay for basics like food, medicine and lodging.

‘In the end, the real benefit has gone to Ram Lalla,’ Acharya Satyendra Das, the chief priest of the makeshift temple, told Scroll.in over the phone.”