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.”