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Amarinder lobbying to protect Act

By Sarabjit Pandher

CHANDIGARH, JULY 14. The Punjab Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, spent a day at the Parliament to "protect'' the controversial Termination of Agreements Bill, 2004, which was passed by the Assembly on Monday. While he stood guard against attempts to sabotage the step, he also met other Members of Parliament to explain the "real situation''.

Sources close to the Chief Minister, said Capt. Singh has been quite concerned at the attempts to portray Punjab as a "sinner'', even when its rights were usurped and no amicable solution had been worked out since the State was re-organised on linguistic basis in 1966. So far alone in the Congress, Capt. Singh seems to have launched a campaign to win friends to project Punjab's case before the party as well as the country.

Reports received here indicated that the Chief Minister spent considerable time in the Central Hall today, amid reports that at least one Rajya Sabha member and a former Lok Sabha member had contacted Congress MPs from Punjab, to dissuade them from supporting Capt. Singh's efforts. However, when contacted over phone in Delhi, former Lok Sabha member, Jagmeet Singh Brar, said there was no question of opposing the Bill passed by the Assembly. Mr. Brar said he himself had courted arrest about six times on the issue, made more than two dozen special mentions during his two tenures as MP, pleaded the State's case before the Water Resources Commission and written various articles.

Mr. Brar described the development as "historic" and said it was a different issue to analyse the impact the legislation could have. He however regretted that the Chief Minister did not discuss the matter at the party level or take any senior leaders into confidence about the imminent step. Similarly, a Rajya Sabha member, Ashwani Kumar, said that like all other MPs from Punjab, he too endorsed the stance adopted by the State Government and ruled out any fissures on the issue.

A Minister from Punjab, who preferred anonymity, said that Capt. Singh had done something that none of the previous Chief Ministers could even dare of contemplating. He claimed that for a while Capt. Singh had stolen the thunder from the Akalis, especially Mr. Badal, who had been claiming to be the messiah of Punjabi farmers.

Political sources further indicated that Capt. Singh has so far withstood all pressures from the Congress leadership to effect a turn around, especially in light of the forthcoming elections to the Haryana Assembly. Some even indicated that the Chief Minister may prefer to quit but not succumb to any attempts to dilute Punjab's stance on the issue.

Meanwhile, Capt. Singh has got immense support from a quarter he least expected. The Shiromani Akali Dal, while continuing with the unconditional support on defending the State's claim on river waters, had in June gone to the extent of threatening to walk out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), in case any of its constituents acted against Punjab's position. The Akali stand comes in reaction to the statement by the former Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani on Tuesday.

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