Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday warned Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to “immediately withdraw his controversial statement on Chandigarh which had surrendered Punjab’s rights over the Union Territory, or be ready to face a full-scale agitation on this issue by Punjabis”.
Mann on Saturday stirred up a row by demanding a piece of land in Chandigarh from the Centre for a separate Punjab Vidhan Sabha.
Asserting that “the CM had backstabbed Punjabis and poured cold water on their aspirations to regain Chandigarh, Punjabi speaking areas in Haryana and its river waters”, Badal said, “Mann alone is responsible for the current crisis, which has threatened Punjab’s hold on Chandigarh.”
He said, “The CM had himself harmed the interests of the state during a meeting with the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in which he demanded a separate piece of land for a high court building of the state. This demand gave Haryana a chance to seek land for a separate Vidhan Sabha in the Union Territory.”
Before Mann tweeted his demand, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday made a similar demand for building a separate state assembly in Chandigarh. This was at the Northern Zonal Council meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Jaipur. Shah had given his nod to Khattar’s demand.
Asserting that no Punjabi could surrender the interests of the state in this fashion, Badal said, “It seems Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal has made him make this statement in a conspiracy to erode all rights of Punjab. We will not let this conspiracy succeed at any cost and have called an emergency meeting of the party’s core committee on July 12 to chalk out our next course of action.”
Addressing a press conference on Sunday, the SAD president also categorically told the central government that “Chandigarh is an inalienable part of Punjab and that the party will not allow Haryana to take over any land in the Union Territory to build a new Vidhan Sabha or high court. We are ready to make any sacrifice for it”.
He also appealed to PM Narendra Modi to “understand the sentiments of Punjabis and transfer Chandigarh to Punjab”.
He said, “The central government is at best a caretaker as far as Chandigarh is concerned with the issue having been decided in 1966 during the reorganisation of states and later by the Rajiv–Longowal Accord in 1985, which had been passed by Parliament as well as the Haryana Assembly.”
He also announced that “the SAD would meet the prime minister and the home minister and inform them that Haryana did not have any right to take over any fresh piece of land in Chandigarh”.
The SAD president, who was accompanied by senior leaders like Balwinder Singh Bhundur and Prem Singh Chandumajra, said Chandigarh was established by uprooting Punjabi-speaking villages of Kharar Tehsil. “This in itself gives Punjab a natural right over Chandigarh, a fact which has not been disputed by the Centre or Haryana, but has come under threat due to the controversial statement of the Punjab CM,” he added.
Badal also alleged that “the Punjab CM had repeatedly failed to protect the interests of Punjab – be it not opposing removal of the permanent member representing Punjab in the Bhakra Beas Management Board, or failing to oppose central pay scales to government employees in Chandigarh, or for that matter, not speaking up immediately against the move to convert Panjab University into a central university”.
