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Opposition leaders skip Ludhiana debate, CM Bhagwant Mann blames them for Punjab’s ‘suffering’

Holding the preceding Congress and SAD governments responsible for the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) crises, Mann said that they didn’t want to discuss it now.

Aayush Goel

Published Nov 01, 2023 | 10:19 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 01, 2023 | 10:19 PM

Mann chastised the opposition leaders for skipping the debate. (Supplied)

Mann chastised the opposition leaders for skipping the debate. (Supplied)

The much-anticipated “Main Punjab Bolda Haan” debate, held in Ludhiana on Wednesday, 1 November, turned out to be a Chief Minister monologue with none of the invited opposition leaders in attendance.

While the entire city was turned into a fortress, Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, BJP state president Sunil Kumar Jakhar, and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Badal, among others, chose to stay away from the debate. They called it a publicity gimmick aimed at embarrassing the state.

‘Opposition has nothing against me’

Mann, in his speech, criticised the opposition leaders for their absence, suggesting that they had no tangible issues to discuss. He said that everybody was given 25 days after he challenged them to a debate, but they were unable to find any grounds to criticise him or his government.

“These leaders were not able to find even a single thing against me or my government during ‘preparatory holidays’ over the last 25 days, due to which they were not able to muster courage to face me on issues concerning Punjab,” said Bhagwant Mann, during his address at the debate in Punjab Agricultural University.

Holding the preceding Congress and SAD governments responsible for the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) crises, Mann said that they now didn’t want to discuss it under the pretence that it was old.

Also read: Will make previous governments answerable at debate: Mann

Mann attacks opposition over SYL canal

“SYL is a saga of treachery, betrayal, and sin against Punjab and Punjabis by its own leadership. Congress leaders shamelessly sang paeans in favour of SYL canal through white paper brought on the floor of Punjab Vidhan Sabha in the early 1980s. A single act — Inter State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 — is applicable throughout India for resolving water disputes among states, but Punjab is the only state where a separate arrangement has been made for the distribution of water between Punjab and Haryana, in the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966,” explained Mann.

He added, “Not only did the Congress fail to get Punjab its rightful water resources, even while they were in power both at the Centre and as a state government, but even SAD, too, didn’t care to stop the SYL work while Parkash Singh Badal was chief minister multiple times. Badal acquired the requisite land for constructing the SYL canal, in a very short period by imposing emergency clauses.”

“The complicity of Akali Dal with the Government of Haryana is also clear from the fact that in the Vidhan Sabha session (held from 1 to 7 March in 1978), the then-chief minister of Haryana Chaudhary Devi Lal said that due to his personal relation with Badal, the Punjab government had acquired the land under Section 4 and Section 17 (emergency clause) for the SYL canal and that the Punjab government is trying its best for this work,” Mann said.

“It is a well-known fact that the ancestors of these leaders have sown thorns before Punjab and its younger generations by indulging in this unpardonable crime of constructing the SYL. For the sake of their vested interests, these selfish political leaders had agreed, planned, and executed the construction of this canal. Everyone knows that former Union minister Balram Jakhar (Sunil Jakhar’s father), along with Captain Amarinder Singh, accompanied the then-prime minister Indira Gandhi to perform the ground-breaking ceremony of SYL at Kapuri,” added Mann.

Also read: Governor softens stand after Punjab moves SC over 3 money Bills

Opposition leaders react

Mann said that he had extended invitations to the opposition leaders to present their perspectives on the platform, but they chose to abstain, offering what he deemed as frivolous reasons. “Being voted out of power did not absolve them of their prior actions and they owe the public an explanation,” he stated.

Terming Mann’s wayward outburst as the worst lowdown in state’s political history, Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar said, “His pompous attitude has made a mockery of the state’s water concern for which Punjabis will never forgive him. By first keeping SYL out of the list of issues and, today, choosing to speak on SYL, Bhagwant Mann has belittled his own image as a Chief Minister and the significance of issues being faced by those who voted for him in 2022. All the Chief Minister wanted was to keep every political leader away from debate, by hook or crook.”

Launching an all-out attack on Mann, Jakhar said that it was by no means an event where a common Punjabi could have been present. The near-total police clampdown in Ludhiana was only to make it a VVIP event, where only the Chief Minister spoke his political master’s (Kejriwal’s) voice.

In a video message released on X, the veteran leader also challenged Bhagwant Mann to either come with proof of seeing his father Chaudhary Balram Jakhar with prime minister Indira Gandhi at the digging of SYL or apologise.

Agreeing with him, Partap Singh Bajwa called the Chief Minister out for his latest post. “A night before the debate, the Punjab Chief Minister, through his X post, changed the topic of the debate from the SYL canal to four issues including drug abuse, growing gangsterism, and unemployment. The SYL issue was nowhere in that post, which wasn’t at all justified. He squandered ₹30 crore of taxpayers’ money on the fake publicity of this maha-drama. No general public was allowed,” said Bajwa.

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