Amarinder plays to the gallery, works the back-channels

To him, the more serious issue was the degree of flak Punjab’s move had drawn. But beyond the grandstanding, he made two points: That the time for political solutions was past and the matter would only be settled in the courts, for which he had assembled a high-powered team.

Sources say that in Delhi, his team spoke to party leaders about a possible fallout of this controversy: The return of terrorism. At the press conference, Singh said 16 lakh people would lose their livelihood if the canal went ahead. But behind the scenes, say sources, Punjab has been pointing this out to the Centre — that the terrorist problem began almost immediately after the SYL project got the go-ahead in 1982. Punjab’s politicians have been trying to argue that water is such an emotive issue in the state that it can easily bring back a threat that has been quelled.