‘Saviour of Punjab waters’: AAP gives Bhagwant Mann an image makeover amid row with Haryana

In another meeting, on April 30, the BBMB got all its partner states including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan to vote on the issue. While the two BJP-ruled states Haryana and Rajasthan voted in favour of release of water to Haryana, Himachal Pradesh abstained from voting. Punjab submitted a dissent note to the BBMB.

Bone of contention

Punjab has claimed that it has already been releasing 4,000 cusecs water to Haryana every day even after the latter “exhausted” its share of water from the Bhakra dam. At the BBMB’s April 24 meeting, Haryana sought 4,500 cusecs extra water, saying its population was going without drinking water.

The BBMB regulates the Bhakra dam water, which is released to Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan in a yearly cycle from May 21 to May 20 of the next year. Water is released to Haryana through Bhakra Main Line (BML) from the dam.

Punjab has claimed that Haryana had not only gone beyond its quota by

using its 103% and that it could only be given extra water from the intervening night of May 20-21 as per the shares of the states concerned.

On May 2, Mann held an all-party meeting to discuss the row, which unanimously rejected the BBMB’s decision. The same evening, Union Home Secretary held a high-level meeting on the issue, with the Centre asking Punjab to execute the BBMB’s decision to release 4,500 cusecs water to Haryana for the next eight days to meet the latter’s urgent water requirement.

The BBMB called an emergency meeting on May 3 which was boycotted by Punjab.

Sticking to its guns, the Mann government then called a special session of the Punjab Assembly on May 5, which passed a resolution against sharing extra water with Haryana.

On May 8, the AAP workers led by minister Harjot Bains held a sit-in protest outside Sutlej Sadan, the BBMB guesthouse, in a bid to

stop BBMB chairperson Manoj Tripathi from releasing water to Haryana. They even locked him inside the rest house. He was later “rescued” and moved out in a police vehicle. Later, CM Mann also arrived at the spot.

On May 9, the Punjab and Haryana High Court took cognisance of these incidents, saying that prima facie a case of contempt was made out against Punjab as the state did not comply with the order directing it not to interfere in the working of the BBMB.

Mann, Amarinder as ‘paniaan da rakha’

The AAP has been highlighting CM Mann’s role in “standing up to Haryana, BBMB and even the Centre for protecting the rights of Punjab over its waters”. The party has released two videos, made with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), that project Mann as “paanian da rakha”.

In one video, Mann is shown to be closing the gates of the Bhakra dam to stop the flow of water. In another video, the CM is seen stopping the BBMB chairman from releasing the water.

During the special Assembly session, several AAP ministers and MLAs hailed Mann as “paanian da rakha”.

The Treasury benches took a swipe at the Congress for having awarded this epithet to Amarinder earlier. Mann also joined in, telling the Opposition benches that their “paanian da rakha has now crossed over to BJP”.

During his first term as the CM, the then Amarinder-led Congress government passed the Punjab Termination of Water Agreements Act, 2004, scrapping Punjab’s pacts with Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Chandigarh over sharing of the waters of Ravi and Beas rivers. It also provided for cancelling the plan to build the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal in the state for the water-sharing purpose.

Amarinder was then feted by the Congress as the “saviour of Punjab waters”, which was also part of the party’s plank in its successful campaign for the 2017 Assembly elections.

Participating in the discussion during the special Assembly session, AAP leader and Water Resources Minister Barinder Kumar Goyal, while tabling the resolution, said it was only due to Mann that “Punjab has been able to use 85% canal water”.

Minister Harjot Bains thanked Mann for having rushed to Nangal on the day the BBMB ordered the release of extra water to Haryana, saying, “Our CM did not allow the water to be released”.

Echoing their sentiments, Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sondh said, “They used to call Amarinder the saviour of waters. However, it was just a title. The reality was that the Congress was responsible for allowing the start of construction of the SYL canal.”

Finance Minister Harpal Cheema said: “CM Mann went to Nangal. He gave a call to everyone to get together to save Punjab’s waters. All other parties including SAD, BJP and Congress have bungled, they need to apologise.”

On his part, Mann, while concluding his speech, claimed that no one was using canal water in Punjab earlier. “We have increased the coverage of canal water for agriculture now. Our tube wells are pumping hot water, which means we have reached some aquifers which have chemicals, heavy metals. We have over-exploited our waters. No one paid any attention to it earlier.”

Politics over water

Punjab, a major riparian state of Sutlej river, has often seen politics heating up over water. While Amarinder brought the termination of agreements law, in November 2016, the then Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government brought another law denotifying the lands meant for the construction of the SYL canal in order to return them to their original owners. Haryana has been up in arms against Punjab over the SYL issue too.

Observers point out that the AAP has been raking up the water row as it is considered a popular cause in Punjab, a predominantly agricultural state. The AAP has been facing farmers’ protests and public discontent over various issues for months, even as it gears up for the Assembly elections slated for early 2027.