AAP asks Amarinder to clarify stand on welcoming Indira Gandhi for SYL canal foundation

CHANDIGARH : The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) has asked the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee(PPCC) president Capt Amarinder Singh to clarify his alleged dubious role in welcoming the them Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on April 8, 1982, to lay the foundation of disputed SYL canal at Kapoori. Sukhpal Singh Khaira AAP leader from Punjab has issued clipping of an advertisement in the newspapers dated April 8, 1982. He said that now that a news clipping dated 8th April 1982 has come to public domain showing Capt. Amarinder Singh welcoming the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi, to lay the foundation of SYL canal, it is highly imperative for Capt. Amarinder Singh to clear extreme dichotomy being adopted by him on the contentious burning issue of SYL canal.
It’s a matter of record, that Indira Gandhi misusing Sections 78 and 80 of the Reorganisation of Punjab Act 1966, made a blatant unconstitutional move in 1976 to award 75% of Punjab’s waters to non riparian states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi, i.e. 11.7 MAF out of the total 15.85 MAF water was allotted to the said states. Thereafter, the Shiromani Akali Dal government in 1978 moved the constitutional bench of Supreme Court to oppose this anti Punjab award of Smt. Gandhi. After returning to power in 1980 she once again pressurised the then Congress government of Punjab, to withdraw the waters petition from the Supreme Court. Khaira said that it was Indira Gandhi who had on 8th April 1982 made the first dig of SYL canal at V. Kapoori in Ropar district, which led to a mass agitation popularly known as the “Kapori-Da-Morcha”, that was later merged with “Dharam-Yudh” morcha at the Darbar Sahib Amritsar in 1982. The blatantly illegitimate, unfair, partisan and unconstitutional role of Smt. Gandhi in ordering the SYL canal was also responsible for pushing Punjab into a state of anarchy, bloodshed and chaos, which finally sparked terrorism claiming thousands of innocent lives.The machvillian role of Akali’s and Sh. Badal was no better on the burning issue of SYL, who only played to the gallery, whipped up sentiments to reap cheap political dividends.He added that no doubt it was the Capt. Amarinder Singh government which introduced the “Termination of Agreement Act, 2004” in the Vidhan Sabha, only to be rejected by the President of India, who once again passed it on the 5 member constitutional bench of the Supreme Court for final adjudication. In other words, Capt. Singh may have delayed the construction of SYL canal but he must admit to the fact, that it is the Congress party and its central leadership which created the entire dispute revolving around SYL canal and the river waters of Punjab.Therefore, keeping in view the double standards being adopted by Capt. Amarinder Singh on the burning issue of SYL canal, AAP urges him to clarify his dubious role of welcoming Smt. Indira Gandhi to lay the foundation of SYL canal on 8th April 1982, as per the news item attached. In case he fails to offer a tangible reply on the matter, it would be presumed that he is only whipping up public sentiments on a sensitive issue like SYL to become the Chief Minister of Punjab.