Simranjit Singh Mann & Kuldip Singh Wadala Claim They Will Symbolically Fill Up The SYL Canal On March 20
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, March 17, 1999 - "Ignorance is not innocence but sin, and it is not bliss – it is oblivion" is an old adage every Sikh, especially the claimants to leadership of the captive 18 million compatriots in Indian occupied Punjab, Khalistan, would do well to remember. Now that the crafty Brahmin-dominated leadership in Hindu-majority Haryana, taking advantage of Sikh ‘internal wars’ and general ignorance that prevails among us, have bared its fangs once again by reviving the issue of the defunct SYL (Sutlej-Jumna-Link) canal (which like the Indra Gandhi canal, is meant to steal Punjab’s water) it is imperative that we Sikhs, for the sake of our children and their children, stand together to meet this assault on our future. The least we can do is to wish a good bye to ignorance and show solidarity.As a glaring example of our ignorance here is a question! Can any Sikh reader of this column, or anyone else, honestly say that he/she knew that for the past 21 years India (BBMB-Bhakra Beas Management Board) has been feverishly working on a project in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh (financed by the central government) to divert the water of the Beas river (4,715 million cubic meters of water is no small amount) into the Bhakra Nangal dam by means of two huge 26 Kilometer long tunnels and open hydel channels? These outlets carry Beas river water from the rockfill dam at Pandoh, located East of Mandi high in the mountains of Himachal, to a reservoir near Sundernagar and on to the Govind Sagar lake formed by the Bhakra Nangal dam. No wonder tourists, hikers, shepherds and trekkers have been prevented from visiting the vicinity of Pandoh dam which picturesque a mountainous area. For years this has been quarantined and declared a restricted military area!
As providence wanted to smile on us Sikhs, and remove the curtain of ignorance that surrounds us, a very meaningful story ("BSL project fills their cup of woe") by one, Kishori Lal, reporting from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, slipped through the editorial censor of the anti/Sikh English Language Chandigarh newspaper Tribune. It appeared hidden in a nook in the Tribune’s issue of Wednesday February 24, 1999. In his report Tribune correspondent Kishori Lal lamented the misery of the people through whose land passes the Beas-Sutlej Link project – described above – consisting of tunnels and channels which connect Pandoh dam on the Beas river with the Bhakra-Nangal dam on the Sutlej river. At the time of reorganization in 1966, when the old Punjab was being divided into three states, a Sikh-baiter, India’s powerful Home minister Gulzarilal Nanda, kept his promise of teaching the Sikhs a lesson for demanding a Punjabi suba. He made sure that major irrigation projects were located in Himachal Pradesh territory and not the new Punjabi suba.
Lal’s report in the Tribune goes on to state that; "All the natural water resources of the area, (through which the two tunnels/channels (about 26 Kilometer long) pass) have dried up causing untold hardship to the villagers. No amount of compensation can restore the benefits of the water resources, which were perennial springs before the execution of the project." Lal goes on to say that; "Another devastating impact of the BSL project is that it has converted the fertile Bath valley into a virtual desert due to the ejection of silt from the hydel channel and Sundernagar reservoir. The silt has spilled into the Suketi Khud by the silt-ejector of the BSL project and during the rainy season a thick sheet of silt spreads over the valley – the granary of Mandi district. The BBMB (Bhakra Beas Management Board) authorities have been adopting an evasive attitude to the genuine hardships of the people since 1997, when the project was completed, built on Himachal territory and financed by the center, yet Himachal Pradesh is not a beneficiary of this project. All that has come to Himachal is untold hardship being faced by its people. These projects have wrecked havoc on the people of Himachal Pradesh, who have been suffering." Most Sikhs have empathy for the people of Himachal Pradesh’s . It is being suggested that the Himachal should shut down the Beas-Sutlej Link between PANDOH and BHAKRA NANGAL dams as it is a mean double edged sword indeed which is of no benefitt to Himachal Pradesh or Punjab.
Very portentous is the fact that the Beas-Sutlej Link is also the cause for destroying the fertile farmlands of the Punjab, located South of what is left of the Beas river in the Hoshiarpur-Jullundur-Kapurthala triangle. The BSL diversion, which has dried up the Beas river, to a trickle, has caused the underground water tables in that area to fall rapidly and dangerously – because of very little replenishment – as a result of which in less than ten years, impartial engineers estimate, this fertile farms area will become a desert as thousands of tubewells will go dry or will sink out of reach. This dangerous condition can be reversed if somehow the Beas rivulet becomes the Beas river again! Here is where Himachal can help its people as well as their neighbors the people of Punjab. It can shut down the PANDOH DAM!
The Muktsar-Bhatinda-Ferozepur triangle in South Western Punjab is another area of the Punjab which is also being destroyed – but for a different reason – like the Mandi area of Himachal and the Punjabi farmlands South of the Beas river. This South West part of Punjab, once very fertile, has been destroyed by waterlogging and salinity a residuary ‘gift’ from the Indira Gandhi and Bikanir canals which carry Sutlej River water to non-riparian Hindu-majority Rajasthan state with no benefit what-so-ever for Punjab.
Ignoring the immense damage to Punjab’s future and its people – including Hindus – described above, Mr. Om Parkash Chautala, Indian National Lok Dal president, Haryana Chief Minister Bansi Lal and some other publicity seekers, had the gall to synchronously demand (Times of India – March 14 and 15, 1999) that the people of Punjab (commit collective suicide) complete the unfinished SYL (Sutlej-Yumuna Link) canal which will syphon water from the Sutlej river to Haryana. They are not concerned if the canal waterlogs the farmlands in its path, a la the Indira Gandhi and Bikanir canals, or depletes and disturbs Punjab’s water resource or makes tubewell farming prohibitive.
These crafty Haryana politicians better understand pronto, that on the SYL issue EVERY Sikh is united, from Mr. Simranjit Singh Mann to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to Gurcharan Singh Tohra to the Punjabi farmer and the Punjabi clerk or trader, that there is NOT going to be any Sutlej-Yumna Link (SYL) canal. Period!
Mr. Simranjit Singh Mann and Mr. Kuldip Singh Wadala, and whoever joins them, will earn not only the respect of the 18 million Sikhs captive in the Indian map but also the support of the 3 million strong resourceful Sikh diaspora, if they carry out the symbolic demonstration/warning on the ground, on Saturday, March 20, 1999. When they plan to fill the abandoned SYL canal, in the general area of Fatehgarh Sahib and Bassi Pathan road accompained by thousands of activists. In order to be cured of ignorance, one must confess it. The protest on March 20, if it is carried out, will be a ‘confession’ and a symbolic demonstration of the Sikh determination that NOT A DROP OF PUNJAB WATER WILL FLOW IN THE ABANDONED SYL CANAL.