"Sikhon` ko Dr. Manmohan Singh kay prime minister bunnay say kyamila?" --- "What did the Sikhs gain from Mrs Sonia Gandhi's appointment of a Sikh, as Prime minister of India?"
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - Two weeks ago, in our column dated May 26, 2004, we asked, "What did the Sikhs gain from Mrs. Sonia Gandhi's appointment of a docile Sikh technocrat, Dr. Manmohan Singh, as Prime minister of India?" (> /Main/K_Calling/kc05262004.htm <) The Manmohan Singh/Sonia Gandhi government in Delhi did not take very long to respond to that question. Its deeds; three 'thumbs' in the collective eye, or slaps on the face, of the 25 million strong Sikh nation (3 million FREE in the diaspora and 22 million captive in India) in less than three weeks, say a book about what the Sikhs have gained from Mrs. Sonia Gandhi's appointment of a 'Sikh' Prime minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh.Exactly on June 04, 2004, last week, when the Sikhs were shedding tears on the 20th anniversary of the Indian Army's June 04, 1984 attack on their holiest shrine, Darbar Sahib, ordered by the then Indian prime minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi, of the Nehru dynasty, and were reflecting and remembering the thousands of innocent Sikhs, who were murdered in June 1984, (in the first of two anti/Sikh state-sponsored pogroms in India in that horrible year), her daughter-in-law Mrs. Sonia Gandhi's Manmohan Singh government, has arranged for another murderous assault - this one is more subtle - on the Sikhs. (To read the Sikh pulse on the twentieth anniversary of the June 1984 'Ghallughara' - Indian army attack on Darbar Sahib - please read last week's column headlined, "Remembering the June 84 Indian army attack on Sri Akal Takht Sahib in Amritsar - A Salute to the Sikh Martyrs," by clicking at: > /Main/K_Calling/kc06022004.htm <) This latest subtle attack on the Punjab, by a government of the anti/Sikh Nehru Dynasty, under a technocrat 'poster-boy' Sikh Prime minister, if allowed to succeed, will result in the garden state of Punjab, and its fertile agricultural lands, becoming a desert and our children, their children and their children will have to suffer the consequences in the years to come.
In a deliberate and rude synchronization of dates - it was no coincidene, we have no doubts about that - Dr. Manmohan Singhs' government in Delhi, has arranged for two Hindutva-fundamentalist judges of the Supreme Court (a Bench consisting of Ms. Justice Ruma Pal and Mr. Justice P. Venkatarama Reddi) to time their judgement on the SYL canal issue with the historic - for Sikhs - June 04 anniversary date. The Supreme Court bench, (in an order written by Ms. Justice Ruma Pal infamous for her anti/Sikh views) has directed the Central government to construct the unfinished portion of the controversial Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal (first proposed in 1976) in the territory of Punjab - 121 Kilometers long - to facilitate the transfer of Punjabs' scarce life-giving river waters to non-riparian Hindu-majority state of Haryana. A state which has refused to share the waters of the Jumna river, which passes through Haryana territory, with Punjab.
This bigoted 'two-member-bench' of the Supreme Court, had earlier allowed the state of Haryana’s application for implementation of the court’s January 15, 2002 order for construction of the SYL (Sutlej-Yumna Link) canal in the territory of Punjab. The two judges (Ms. Justice Ruma Pal and Mr Justice P. Venkatarama Reddi) in their judgement, written by Ms. Justice Ruma Pal, ordered, "the Union Government to appoint a Central Agency within four weeks for the execution of the work".
The court rejected Punjab’s counter-suit challenging the January 15, 2002, decree of the court by way of which the state was to construct the SYL canal by January 15, 2003. In the ultimate insult, the court also imposed a cost for filing the suit on Punjab, which was not specified in the order and had to be calculated by the Registry. The court further directed the Union Government to appoint, within one month, a special committee of officials with representatives from both states, Punjab and Haryana, to supervise the construction work, which should be started as early as possible.
The Supreme Court bench (Ms. Justice Ruma Pal and Mr. Justice P. V. Reddi) also directed the Punjab Government to hand over the land on which the unfinished canal was to be built - 121 kilometers - to the Central Agency within two weeks of its appointment. Besides, the Punjab Government was ordered by the court order (writtten by Sikh-hater Ms. Justice Ruma Pal for the bench) to provide adequate security to the officials of the executing agency and the construction workers to be engaged by it. The executing agency was directed to prepare a new map of the canal for the area where the job had to be completed on the basis of a fresh survey by keeping in mind that no damage was caused to the green belt falling in the way.
To justify the one-sided Court order in favour of Haryana, Ms. Justice Ruma Pal charged that, the Punjab government had delayed implementation of the court decree, passed in favour of Haryana in the past, because of fear of insurgency (a la the 1990 gunning down of SYL project Chief Engineers M. L. Sekhri and A. S. Aulakh and thirty labourers by Punjabis opposed to the SYL). Ms. Justice Ruma Pal rejected the insurgency plea by writing in her judgement that, "The Court does not accept the plea of the Punjab Government that construction of the SYL canal could give rise to militancy. The correspondence and the record of minutes show that the Punjab Chief Minister as well as the government officials named in the correspondence have arrogated themselves the power of sitting as super-judicial body over this court. That was why exclusive jurisdiction was given to the Supreme Court, under Article 131 of the Constitution, to decide such disputes strictly on legal considerations and in keeping with the provisions of the Indian Constitution. By refusing to comply with the decree of the court under Article 131, not only was the offending party guilty of contempt of court, but it also shook the very foundation of the Constitution which the people governing the state had sworn to uphold while assuming office." Some legal hocus pocus by Ms. Justice Ruma Pal to explain her suspicious and unbecoming conduct - too much zeal!
Punjab’s counsel Rupinder Singh Suri, after the pronouncement of the judgement, said that the order passed by the court has gone beyond the arguments forwarded by the parties as only the question of the maintainability of Haryana’s application was argued. But the court did not agree with his contention and said the arguments had gone beyond this question. Punjab, in its counter-suit, had stated that in the changed circumstances sharing of water with Haryana was not possible as the inflow in the rivers in the state had fallen from over 17 MAF (million acres feet) to nearly 14 MAF during past two decades, while its water needs had increased with more areas coming under cultivation. Though the court had not identified any agency to be handed over the construction work by the Centre, Haryana, in its application, had pleaded that the work be handed over to the Border Road Organisation.
In its affidavit submitted to the Supreme court the Manmohan Singh-led central government, HAS expressed its willingness to construct the SYL canal and has indicated that it has prepared a contingency plan for the job, but it stated that without the cooperation of Punjab Government construction would not be possible. This is the THIRD 'gift' or 'thumb-in-the-eye-of-the-Sikhs' by the Manmohan Singh government in less than three weeks. The other two 'gifts' being the appointment of massmurderers of the Delhi Sikhs (November 1984 state-sponsored pogrom) ) Jagdish Tytler, as minister of state of NRI's and Kamal Nath as a full cabinet minister incharge of Commerce & Industry. Both these thugs mustered Hindu mobs in November 1984, after receiving Rajiv Gandhi's 'wink and a nod', which carried out a murder/arson/looting spree in Delhi, killing thousands of innocent Sikh men, women and children.
According to the June 08, 2004, Tribune, Chandigarh, Punjab's (lazy, lush and do-nothing?) Chief minister Captain Amarindir Singh has rushed to New Delhi where he is scheduled to meet with Mrs. Sonia Gandhi's Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh today (June 09, 2004) in the, "backdrop of Supreme Court refusal to accept the Punjab state's review plea on SYL canal". Amarinder Singh in his meeting with Sonia Gandhi's Prime minister Manmohan Singh - who won't be listening we are sure - is expected to urge for fair adjudication on all matters related to Ravi-Beas river waters, their availability and construction of the SYL canal in accordance with internationally recognised principles of riparian and basin states. The Chief Minister would also seek disbanding of the Eradi tribunal, which had "outlived" its life and will suggest constitution of a new tribunal."
What we can't understand is Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh nonchalant attitude and his wait for the last minute. Is he part of the conspiracy or just stupid and lazy? The Punjab government has not even paid the bills of its legal counsel, in this case, Mr. Fali S. Nariman, who is to finalize the review petition! Our Cassandra-like warnings to the Punjab leadership, on the SYL canal, have appeared atleast two dozen times in these columns in the last five years. The last column was ten weeks ago, on March 24, 2004, and was headlined, "Appeal to ALL Sikhs to unite on the river water - SYL - issue; Three pronged conspiracy by the state of Haryana, the Indian Supreme Court & the phony Eradi Tribunal to deprive the Sikh Homeland of Punjab, of its river waters via the proposed SYL canal." (To read please click at: > /Main/K_Calling/kc03242004.htm <) Other columns since 1999 are listed below:-
> /Main/K_Calling/kc02182004.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc12312003.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc08272003.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc07302003.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc04302003.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc03192003.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc02262003.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc01232002.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc12042002.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc10232002.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc09112002.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc09042002.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc08072002.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc07312002.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc07242002.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc03272002.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc02062002.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc01232002.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc09052001.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc08212001.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc06202001.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc041499.htm <
> /Main/K_Calling/kc031799.htm <
We urge Punjab's political leaders, of all shades and opinions, for the umpteenth time, to unite for the sake of our children and their children, and counter this latest SYL canal piracy which is being planned right under the nose of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi's Sikh Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. He may be a soft-spoken, decent and humble fellow but his credentials stand tarnished in the eyes of many, after the delivery of three 'gifts' (read slaps) to the Sikhs within three weeks of his Prime ministership mentioned above. A token visit to the Darbar Sahib, or an apology, by Dr. Manmohan Singh for the 1984 attack and destruction of Akal Takht Sahib, some ill-informed Sikhs are talking about, will make no difference, as those empty gestures will only account for that which they do not alter.