Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MlA Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Sunday asked Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and all Congress MlAs whether they would resign if Supreme Court judgment on the Satluj Yamuna link (SYl) canal is ‘adverse’ or “was it political dramatics and theatrics last November”.
“Capt Amarinder and 46 Congress MlAs had resigned to protest the Supreme Court decision on the SYl canal issue in November 2016. A similar crisis over SYl canal is likely to arise tomorrow if Supreme Court deliver an ‘adverse’ judgment over this burning issue,” said Khaira.
He said that it was a matter of record, that the Apex Court, while deciding on the Presidential Reference last November, had held the Termination of Water’s Agreement Act 2004, passed by the then Capt Amarinder government “unconstitutional”, and directed construction of SYl canal at the earliest. All pleas of Punjab, to first decide the quantum of water available, had fallen on deaf ears, he said.
“Even the initiative taken by the Prime Minister’s Office to arrange a meeting between the Chief Secretaries of Punjab and Haryana, to find a solution to the vexed issue could not arrive to any consensus. So there is every possibility that the Supreme Court would issue strict orders for time bound construction of SYl canal tomorrow,” he said.
Khaira said that if Capt Amarinder was genuinely concerned about SYl canal and the waters of Punjab, he should have, by now, written a letter to the Central Government demanding royalty for the state’s waters flowing to other states including Rajasthan, Haryana etc.
“Because the Congress party was a part of the unanimous resolution passed on November 16, 2016, by the Punjab Vidhan Sabha directing the state government to take up the issue of royalty with the Government of India,” he said.
AAP MlA from Bholath added that it was in this context that Capt Amarinder and all 46 Congress MlAs had tendered their resignations as a mark of protest over the SYl issue.
“Although the timing of their resignations clearly indicated that they were more meant for political reasons than a genuine protest over SYl as Capt Amarinder resigned his lok Sabha Amritsar seat to fulfil his burning desire to become the CM, Congress MlAs decided to score brownie points by resigning at the fag end of their tenure with merely two months remaining,” he added.
Khaira said that the real test of the grit of Capt Amarinder and Congress MlAs lies tomorrow, whether they have the will, courage and audacity to quit if Supreme Court orders construction of SYl canalIJ
“If Capt Amarinder and other Congress MlAs refuse to resign over SYl tomorrow, it would be presumed that their resignations tendered in November last year were nothing but a drama, farce and mockery aimed at cheap political mileage,” said Khaira.