Chandigarh, January 27
Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa today launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for what he termed a “wilful abdication of constitutional duty” on the highly sensitive issue of the SYL canal.
Reacting to the joint press conference with the Haryana Chief Minister, Bajwa said that invoking moral symbolism to justify surrendering Punjab’s water was both dangerous and deceptive. “Quoting Bhai Kanhiya to whitewash the dilution of Punjab’s riparian rights is not compassion—it is political betrayal,” he asserted.
Bajwa pointed out that once again, the Chief Minister failed to defend Punjab’s legally protected position. “There was not a single word on constitutional safeguards, not a word on established principles of riparian law, and not a word on Punjab’s already critical ecological stress. Ironically, the oft-repeated claim that ‘Punjab doesn’t have even a drop of surplus water’ disappeared at the very moment it mattered most.”
Bajwa emphasized that Punjab is an over-exploited, environmentally fragile state with no surplus water to share. “The facts are clear, the law is clear, and Punjab’s position is clear. What is unclear is why the Chief Minister chose optics over obligation and Haryana’s narrative over Punjab’s survival,” Bajwa said.
Terming the episode deeply alarming, Bajwa added, “This is not ignorance, this is wilful abdication. This is not incompetence, this is backstabbing. When the lifeline of Punjab was at stake, the Chief Minister chose symbolism instead of substance.”
Concluding, Bajwa warned that history would not be kind to those who compromised Punjab’s core interests. “The people of Punjab will remember who stood firm for their rights—and who traded away Punjab’s water at a podium,” he said.
