Punjab Revenue minister and SAD general secretary Bikram Singh Majithia today asked Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to explain his stand on the SYL canal so that Punjabis would know whether the Congress high command had changed its decades old anti-Punjab stand on this issue or not.In a statement here, Mr Majithia said it was condemnable that the Congress high command and the Punjab Congress were speaking in different voices on the SYL canal issue. "Punjab has suffered tremendously in the past due to the anti- Punjab stand of the Congress high command. Former prime minister Indira Gandhi even brow beat the then chief minister of Punjab and forced the State to sign away its waters to Haryana paving the way for construction of the SYL canal".
The Revenue minister said even today while the Punjab Congress led by its legislature party leader had conducted a sham exercise to fill up of the SYL canal yesterday afternoon after farmers had started filling up the canal one day earlier, the Congress high command was still to spell out its stand on the issue. "It is surprising that Rahul Gandhi is also maintaining silence on such a sensitive issue", Mr Majithia said adding "since the Gandhi family has been responsible for the construction of the SYL canal and robbing Punjab of its waters, it is incumbent on Rahul Gandhi to explain the current view of the party".Asserting that Punjabis only wanted justice on this issue in accordance with the riparian principle, Mr Majithia said Rahul Gandhi simply needed to tell whether he stood by the worldwide acknowledged principle of riparian rights under which river waters belong to those whose land adjoined them.
The Revenue minister said as far as the SAD- BJP government was concerned, it had under the able leadership of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal that history was created by burying the SYL canal on the same land it was constructed. "It was only after the historic resolution moved by the chief minister under which land on which the SYL canal stands was de notified and transferred back to the farmers from whom it had been acquired that the issue has finally found closure", he added.Mr Majithia said now that the SYL canal itself had been made history by Mr Parkash Singh Badal, the Congress high command and Rahul Gandhi should support the SAD- BJP alliance wholeheartedly. "However in case the Congress high command and the Punjab Congress continue to speak in two different voices on this issue, the people of Punjab will understand the Congress party is following its age old policy of discrimination against Punjab and is not interested in getting justice for Punjab", Mr Majithia added.