In what is being as an attempt to shift the public attention from the problems hounding Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has once again raised the issue of transfer of Chandigarh and Punjabi speaking areas to the State. The issue had once again come into focus over six months back with the formation of BJP-Government in the neighbouring State, Haryana. SAD is the major part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP, and is sharing power in Punjab and also at the Centre with the BJP.
At that time, speculations were rife that the age-old issue of transferring Chandigarh and other Punjabi speaking areas to Punjab would be decided with the BJP Government in both the State and also at the Centre. But, the issue was pushed into oblivion apparently for political gain. As the SAD patron and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday maintained that he would strongly raise the issue with the Centre, party’s senior leader and Sri Anandpur Sahib MP Prem Singh Chandumajra too laid claims on Chandigarh demanding making Punjabi the official language of the capital city.
Renewing his firm pledge to get back the Punjabi speaking areas and Chandigarh, Badal said that the SAD would vehemently raise these issues with the Centre. “There is hardly any example in the country where the parent State has been denied of its capital, after the formation of linguistic States, other than Punjab,” he said while talking to the media on the side-lines of a private function in Patiala. Few hours before him, his party colleague Chandumajra demanded that Punjabi be made the official language of Chandigarh and posts in the Chandigarh Administration be filled in the ratio of 60:40 for Punjab and Haryana respectively as stipulated by the Punjab and Haryana Reorganisation Act.
Chandumajra, speaking during the zero hour on the last day of the Parliament session, said: “In Chandigarh, out of 11 lakh people, 90 per cent speak Punjabi…However, in a strange case, the Punjabi language has not even been recognised as the second language in Chandigarh. Punjabi must be made the official language in Chandigarh.” Akali MP, making the demand in the presence of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, also complained about the “dilution of the reorganisation law”, in so far as the appointment of officers to various posts in Chandigarh is concerned.
“The present ratio of appointment of Punjab officers in UT Chandigarh is just five per cent as against 25 per cent for Haryana. This is in clear violation of the laws. This trend must be arrested and Punjab language's primacy restored,” said Chandumajra while referring to a recent circular he cited in the House to make his point on the matter of appointments. The two States of Punjab and Haryana are at loggerheads with each other over the issues of transfer of Chandigarh and other Punjabi-speaking areas in Haryana to Punjab, besides the sharing of river waters as per riparian principles, Satluj-Yamuna link canal, among others.
Chandigarh — the City Beautiful — was to be transferred to Punjab on January 26, 1986, according to the Rajiv-longowal Accord signed in 1985 by the then Congress government. But the implementation of this point of the accord was scuttled virtually at the last minute. Since then, Chandigarh has still not been transferred to either of the States, and enjoying the status of Union Territory while serving as joint capital of both the States. Over the decades, Chandigarh has become the bone of contention between Punjab and Haryana with both staking their claims on it, and none is agreeing to let it go.
Even as Haryana lay its claim on the capital city, Punjab had always accused the successive Congress Governments at the Centre for “discriminating and meting out injustice” by delaying in transferring Chandigarh and other Punjabi speaking areas to the State. Punjab has all along been arguing that being the “parent state”, it has the first and legitimate right over the city. Even as the issue was raised now and then, especially when elections are nearing or every year during Governor’s address to the Vidhan Sabha ahead budget session, it gained momentum after the BJP succeeded in forming the Government Haryana in October last.
The Punjab unit of the BJP had then expressed hope that it was looking forward to an early resolution of all these pending issues, including the transfer of Chandigarh, with their governments in Haryana and the Centre as well. Chief Minister Badal had also pressed that he would take up these issues with the Centre, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, with the hope of their early resolution. In fact, the state Congress unit had also extended its support to the ruling SAD-BJP combine in the matter marinating that with the favourable governments in the Centre and Haryana, it was a “golden opportunity” to raise the issue.