BADAL'S VOLTE-FACE on promise to scrap section 5 of the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act-2004 about distribution of Punjab’s river water
Shame on him
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, April 04, 2007 - The timid ‘Quisling’ Badal regime, in Indian Occupied Punjab, seems to have synchronized its shameful volte-face on it’s stand on the distribution of Punjab’s river water (under section 5 of the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act-2004) to non-riparian states, with the recent stark warning from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) that it is going to become impossible to preserve rivers as life-giving watercourses if governments fail to address, with a sense of urgency, the factors that threaten their health.The above stark message from the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) is contained in its assessment of the world's rivers, in different continents, released to coincide with World Water Day on March 22, 2007. “It may become impossible”, says the assessment, “to preserve rivers (like Ravi, Beas & Sutlej rivers) as life-giving watercourses that have nurtured communities for millennia if governments fail to address, with a sense of urgency, the factors that threaten their health”.
One such factor which threatens the health of Punjab’s water resource – surface & underground – and which will destroy its agricultural economy in the future, is the ever-increasing artificial water shortage and water contamination, being created in the Sikh Homeland, by the arbitrary excessive robbery of its river water by non-riparian states like Rajasthan and Haryana. These states have been siphoning more water (free of charge via the Pong, Bhakra Nangal and other dams and link canals) than has been allowed to be retained by riparian Punjab. Thus Punjab has had to resort to excessive tube well farming as an alternative, with the result that it is pushing Punjab’s underground water table ever deeper to very dangerous levels which in a few years will turn into a desert.
To make matters worse, the Punjab government, on 28 March 2007, in front of the Supreme Court, to its eternal shame, took a diametrically contrary stand to what Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, had been ‘broadcasting’ in pre and post election statements, that he would scrap Section 5 of the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act-2004, (> http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070304/main1.htm <) which allows non-riparian states of Rajasthan and Haryana to continue to rob Punjab’s river water free of charge as they have been doing for decades. The Punjab Termination of Agreement Act-2004 is a legislation passed unanimously by the Punjab State Assembly, under the leadership of the then Chief minister Amrinder Singh, to preempt future conspiracies. The Punjab Termination of Agreement Act-2004 became effective after it was signed by the state Governor on July 12, 2004.
Readers may recall that this Punjab Termination of Agreement Act-2004, passed on July 12, 2004, is a state law which legally (under the Indian constitution ‘river water’ is a state subject) nullified all unequal agreements (like the Sutlej-Yumna Link SYL canal) on sharing of Punjab's river waters. Section 5 of the Act generously guarantees that Punjab will NOT interfere or stop or reduce the quantum of the current gratis (free of charge) siphoning of Punjab river waters, which has been going on for decades, by non-riparian states of Haryana and Rajasthan. Despite Punjab’s fair and generous promise the Indian President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on July 22, 2004, sought the Indian Supreme Court’s advisory opinion on the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act-2004 which abrogates some unequal water-sharing agreements (read understandings – like SYL - made under duress) with its neighboring states.
In July 2004, and there after, the non-riparian water-robbing states of Haryana and Rajasthan had laid low and had taken no action to move the Supreme Court knowing, as they did, that they had no legal legs to stand on. However, the Union government, under a ‘Sikh’ Prime minister, Manmohan Singh, instead of supporting Punjab’s fair and equitable legislation, sought a Presidential reference on this issue under Article 143 of the Indian Constitution. Article 143 (1) enables the President of India to act, on the aid and advice of the Cabinet, to seek the Supreme Court's opinion on any issue relating to such matters which have wide ramifications. The Supreme Court knowing that the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act-2004 was legal under the Indian constitution, as ‘river waters’ is a state subject, pigeon-holed the 22 July, 2004 Presidential reference for the past nearly three years and took no action on the Presidential reference.
All of a sudden in a volte-face, the Indian Supreme Court was told, on 28 March 2007, (> http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070329/main1.htm <) by senior advocate Rajiv Dhawan, appearing for the Punjab government along with Punjab’s standing counsel Rupinder Singh Suri, that, ‘no such statement was ever made’ by Badal to scrap Section 5 of the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act-2004. This is a white lie! Readers are urged to read Khalistan Calling, dated 7 March 2007, headlined, “Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal announces his intent to keep his election pledge to scrap Section 5 of Punjab Termination of Agreement Act, 2004 which allows free of cost transfer of Punjab river water to non-riparian Rajasthan and Haryana states. If Rajasthan and Haryana want Punjab's river water they MUST pay for it,” by clicking at the following link:- > http://khalistan-affairs.org/home/khalistancalling/2007/march07.aspx <
Punjab Counsel Rajiv Dhavan, according to the Indian media (see Tribune story at: > http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070329/main1.htm <) told a Supreme Court Bench, consisting of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justices R.V. Raveendran and D.K. Jain, (during a brief hearing on Haryana's plea for early hearing of a presidential reference of 22 July 2004, against the validity of the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act 2004) that Punjab would stand by Section 5 and all the terms of the agreement will be honored with regard to the water-sharing, nay water-robbing, accord with the neighboring states as protected under the provisions of the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act-2004. The Punjab counsel’s brief statement came in response to Haryana government’s counsel Vinod Bobde who said that, “we are in a situation when the new government in Punjab has made a statement on Section 5.” Readers may recall that Badal had made a statement, on March 3, at a press conference, after being appointed as Punjab Chief Minister that, he would scrap Section 5 of the Punjab Termination of Agreement (PTA) Act -2004. (> http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070304/main1.htm <) As a result Haryana had rushed to the Supreme Court for early hearing of the presidential reference on the validity of the Punjab Termination of Agreement (PTA) which had been pigeon-holed for the past three years by the Supreme Court
It seems from this latest Byzantine development – that a conspiracy is being hatched by the Manmohan Singh-led Congress government at the center (and the Congress-run state of Haryana and the BJP-run state of Rajasthan) to rob Punjab’s river waters resource with the connivance of a timid Chief minister of Punjab, Parkash Singh Badal. Octogenarian Badal (whose main interest these days is to ensure that his son succeeds him) is in coalition in the Punjab with the right wing neo-Nazi BJP which party rules Rajasthan. Under pressure Badal has now resorted to white lies in the Supreme Court that he had NEVER said that he would scrap Section 5 of the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act -200 4, a step which had been welcomed and encouraged by all Punjabi patriots which earned Badal & Co., many votes in the recent Punjab election.
At this point in time Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is reminded of the warning, carried seven years ago, in the last paragraph of the Khalistan Calling dated April 14, 1999, (www.khalistan-affairs.org/khalistancalling/1999/april14.aspx) that, “any dereliction of duty, or compromise, or conspiracy by any Punjabi politician on the river water issue which effects our children, and their children, is an unforgivable and punishable offence in any language, in any country, of the world especially in the Sikh Homeland of the Punjab!”