From the Centre introducing and withdrawing a notification to restructure Panjab University’s administration to the scrapped Constitutional amendment Bill to bring the Union Territory of Chandigarh under Central control, Punjab has witnessed a series of political U-turns by the BJP in the face of backlash in the state.
Meghwal, who represents the Bikaner Lok Sabha seat, landed at the Amritsar airport Thursday evening but did not even step out of the terminal. Within two hours, he boarded a return flight, according to sources. Though the Punjab event was cancelled, Meghwal did, however, attend the canal’s centenary celebrations in Rajasthan’s Sri Ganganagar district with Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma on Friday.
What is the Gang Canal project?
The 157km-long Gang Canal, built by Maharaja Ganga Singh of the erstwhile Bikaner princely state, draws water from the Sutlej river in Punjab and irrigates over 3 lakh hectares of land in Rajasthan, mainly in Sri Ganganagar, Hanumangarh and Karanpur districts. The canal’s foundation stone was laid on December 5, 1925, and it became operational on October 26, 1927. Over the decades, Sutlej water has significantly improved Rajasthan’s agrarian economy, helping the region combat frequent famines.
However, the announcement of the centenary celebrations in Punjab did not go down well with the state’s farmers, especially those in the Malwa region who have long complained of water shortages at the tail-end of the canal network.
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Farmers allege that while the Gang Canal and the Indira Gandhi Canal (both flowing towards Rajasthan) receive their full share of water — as per the agreements between the two states — from the Harike Barrage, several villages in Punjab continue to face acute shortages. Protests by farmers in both Punjab and Rajasthan over water issues have been frequent, with the latest agitation witnessed in June-July this year.
“Many Punjab BJP leaders came to know about it only when they saw a poster shared by Meghwal on his X handle that he was coming to Hussainiwala for the centenary celebrations of the canal. We were taken aback. No doubt Rajasthan and Punjab share cordial relations, but water sharing is a contentious issue in Punjab and the interests of Punjab are supreme,” a BJP leader said.
Sources said soon after Meghwal landed in Amritsar, the Centre advised him to turn back in view of the political backlash rapidly building up in Punjab. “It is good that the Union minister cancelled his trip to Punjab and realised that the scheduled programme was not the party’s programme,” said BJP state president Sunil Jakhar.
BJP sources also said the party’s state working president, Ashwani Sharma, had strictly instructed state leaders not to associate themselves with the Hussainiwala event.
Clarifying the party’s stand on what many perceived as yet another BJP U-turn, Jakhar said, “The party had nothing to do with this programme. However, we will ensure in the future that nobody uses their personal agenda. The interests of Punjab are paramount. Punjab’s strength is the BJP’s strength. We will not allow anyone to use their personal platform in the name of the party.”
Jakhar added, “The Gang Canal is a sensitive and contentious issue in Punjab due to water-sharing concerns. I am thankful that the Centre understood Punjab’s sensitivity well in time.”
Besides Meghwal, other BJP leaders were also scheduled to attend the Hussainiwala event. Among them was Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, a BJP national executive member and a former Congress Cabinet minister in Punjab, who hails from Ferozepur. Sodhi’s son Anumeet Singh Heera Sodhi, also a BJP leader, said, “It was a puja ceremony only at Hussainiwala. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called him (Meghwal) back to Delhi for a meeting related to his department. He flew back late Thursday night.”
Fourth reversal since October
The Meghwal episode marks the fourth major political reversal by the BJP in Punjab in little over a month.
On October 28, the Centre issued a notification regarding the restructuring of Panjab University’s Senate and Syndicate, which triggered sharp reactions and was later withdrawn on November 7. Soon after, a proposed Constitutional amendment Bill that sought to include Chandigarh in Article 240 kicked off a political storm and forced the Centre to beat a hasty retreat. Article 240 empowers the President to make regulations for the Union Territory and legislate directly and was seen as a move to weaken the state’s claim to the city. On December 1, the Centre conveyed its decision to deny the BJP-led Haryana government land in Chandigarh for a separate Assembly complex, a demand that was first made in 2022 in the face of objections of parties in Punjab, including the state BJP.
Though Jakhar sought to delink the Gang Canal event from these previous decisions, the controversy evoked a sharp reaction from the other parties. The Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa of the Congress, on Thursday termed the proposed celebration as “insensitive and politically provocative”.
“The Gang Canal was never a gift to Punjab – it was a political favour granted by foreign rulers at Punjab’s expense,” Bajwa said, adding that for Punjabis, the canal symbolises historic injustice rather than development. “In a state already facing severe water stress, celebrating the very canal that took away Punjab’s water is an affront to our dignity. This is not commemoration – it is provocation,” he added.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state spokesperson Neel Garg also targeted the BJP saying, “In 1927, the British snatched Punjab’s water to please Bikaner and built this canal. Punjab’s fields were thirsty then… and they are even more thirsty today. And yet, BJP is pasting flowers of ‘celebration’ over that very wound? Punjab’s water was looted and the BJP is now selling that very loot in the name of heritage. The oppression of history is not meant to be honoured, it is meant to be condemned,” he said.