As Chandigarh over the decades has become a bone of contention between Punjab and Haryana with both staking claim to it, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday said that Chandigarh is “an integral part of Punjab and no one could stake claim to it as its capital.”
Badal termed his Haryana counterpart Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s statements staking claim to Chandigarh as an attempt to “gain cheap popularity in media.” He said that Hooda is “unnecessarily raking up the issue just to score brownie points and demonstrating one-upmanship.”
Carrying forward the war of words between the two states, Badal said that Hooda must realise that Punjab, being the parent State, has the first and legitimate right on the city.
Sharpening his attack, Badal asserted that tomorrow, Hooda may even lay claim to entire Punjab but would that be concededIJ “The way Haryana Chief Minister has blown this issue out of proportion, he could easily lay claim to Punjab in future but he must understand that sheer claims without any legal sanctity do not hold any ground,” said Badal.
“Capital remains with the parent State and Punjab is the parent State and Haryana was later carved out of it after reorganisation on November 1, 1966….it is needless on the part of Hooda to claim Chandigarh and rake an unnecessary controversy,” said Badal.
He asked Hooda to “desist from making such hollow statements just to gain cheap popularity.”
On Thursday, Hooda asserted that “Chandigarh belongs to Haryana as earlier it was a part of Ambala, and we will definitely get it.”
Attacking Punjab for staking claim to the joint Capital, Hooda said, “I wonder on what basis they (Punjab) are staking claim to Chandigarh, as initially, Chandigarh was a part of Ambala. They are claiming Chandigarh on the basis of Chandigarh being the Capital of the erstwhile Punjab. If that is the basis of their argument, then lahore and Shimla too have been the capitals of Punjab. Why don’t they stake claim to lahore and Shimla also.”
The battle for Chandigarh has intensified after Punjab named Mullanpur in the vicinity of the city as ‘New Chandigarh’, an idea which Haryana opposed vehemently.
The demand of immediate transfer of Chandigarh was raised every now and then by the both the State governments, especially with elections round the corner. The Governor’s Address before the Budget session every year, made a mention of this issue without fail.
In fact, the Shiromani Akali Dal always included this burning issue in its election manifesto.
Even as Haryana lays its claim to the capital city, Punjab accused the Centre for “discriminating and meting out injustice” by delaying the transfer Chandigarh and other Punjabi speaking areas to the State.
Chandigarh — the City Beautiful — was to be transferred to Punjab on January 26, 1986, as part of the Rajiv-longowal Accord. 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 is enjoying the status of Union Territory while serving as the capital of both the states.