ICYMI#TheTribuneOpinion: Punjab’s special needs and the solution to Chandigarh’s shared status

The BJP-ruled Centre has been forced to withdraw one notification after another in quick succession regarding Punjab — one related to key changes in the governance of Panjab University and another, a Bill proposing changes in the governance of Chandigarh itself.

The backlash over the PU notification and Chandigarh Bill forced the Centre to fall in line. The interesting thing is that PM Modi understands that with only 13 seats in the Lok Sabha, Punjab doesn’t carry the electoral weight that large states like Bihar or Bengal do. Punjab has special needs and it is the Centre’s duty to understand them — whether or not Punjabis vote the party into power or not, writes

Editor-in-Chief Jyoti Malhotra in her weekly column The Great Game Two reversals and a missed opportunity. The healing touch that Punjab so desperately needs from the Centre is missing, she writes.

Going into the background as to why Chandigarh is still elusive to Punjab or Haryana, in July 1985, the transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab had become certain with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi signing an accord with Akali Dal president Harchand Singh Longowal that Chandigarh would be transferred to Punjab on Republic Day, i.e. January 26, 1986, but the promise was not honoured.

In his article Why Chandigarh still eludes Punjab, GNDU’s Professor Kuldip Singh writes that the official excuse given by the Centre was that the Matthew Commission had failed to identify the areas to be given to Haryana in lieu of Chandigarh. However, the real reason was the fear of the loss of Hindu votes in the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections, he writes.

In his article A feasible solution to the imbroglio, former Punjab Chief Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar writes that the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, does not include any provision to assign Chandigarh to Haryana nor does it establish any concept of shared ownership. Haryana's claim to Chandigarh is devoid of constitutional foundation and territorial rationale, he avers. Chandigarh was constructed on land acquired, planned and developed by Punjab. The most pragmatic and forward-looking solution is that Haryana should build a new Centrally assisted capital; Punjab should be relieved of the full fiscal burden of Chandigarh and UT Chandigarh should remain a UT serving as the capital of Punjab, he suggests.

Another important milestone the Central Government is boasting of is the saffron flag, now flying atop the Ram Janmabhoomi temple, which marks the culmination of the monumental complex. It will serve as a reminder of three things, writes former Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe in his Op-Ed article Why the Dharma Dhwaja matters.

First, it demolishes the argument that the caste-ridden Hindu society cannot come together. Second, it tells us about the art of mobilising public opinion and building a popular movement. Third, it underscores the dharmic character of Indians, for whom shraddha is an elixir.

With the Tejas aircraft coming under scrutiny after the mishap at the Dubai airshow resulting in the death of its pilot Wing Commander Namansh Syal, there is a need to differentiate between the aircraft's capability and HAL's production capacity, writes Air Vice Marshal Anil Golani (retd) in his Op-Ed article Tejas crash raises tough questions for HAL. The need to campaign for export orders is questionable under the circumstances. The HAL and the aerospace manufacturing ecosystem in the country are, thus, at an inflection point wherein all hands on deck will be required to redeem its reputation of being a dependable defence public sector undertaking, he writes.

Revisiting the Red Fort car blast case, Delhi was not just a blast site. It was a psychological battlefield — and India won the first encounter by disrupting the attack, writes Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd), Ex-GoC, 15 Corps, Srinagar, in his Op-Ed article Red Fort blast was a psychological battlefield. The geography of terror has changed. It is not just seeking territory; it is seeking minds. How do we fight this form of white-collar terrorism? Radicalism must be confronted in chat rooms, clinics, campuses and cafeterias by an empowered set of people who understand Islam well and can explain its powerful message of peace. Technology can intercept plots. But only social cohesion can prevent them, he writes.

The constitutional guarantees to the nation’s minorities remain India’s most important weapon against radical agendas, writes independent journalist Nirupama Subramanian in her Edit piece Lessons from the Red Fort blast. This is the reason Pakistan’s ISI or purveyors of global jihad such as ISIS or al-Qaeda failed to find more than a handful of converts to their agendas or ideologies in Kashmir or elsewhere among the nation’s two hundred million Muslims.

Meanwhile, after a special tribunal sentenced former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina to death on the charges of “crimes against humanity”, the Ministry of External Affairs has stated that India is examining the request for Hasina’s extradition. India should be well prepared to engage with an elected government in Dhaka, writes The Tribune Deputy Editor Vikramdeep Johal in his Edit piece Bangladesh awaits a democratic dawn. It’s also important for India to rebuild ties with Bangladesh because Pakistan is out to exploit the situation created by the Delhi–Dhaka impasse. On the other hand, Dhaka needs to be convinced that allying with a stable India is a much wiser option than siding with an unstable Pakistan, he writes.

Despite October’s shocking trade performance, India’s showing in the first seven months was not that bad. The nation’s path will remain unsteady unless it undertakes key reforms, writes former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg in his Edit article India remains on trade-turning pitch. We need to conclude long-pending foreign trade and investment agreements/treaties with the US, EU and also China to make India a production and export powerhouse for new industrial products (including automobiles). We need to open up education, health, accounting, legal and personal services and thoroughly overhaul travel and transport infrastructure and services to build new services-export growth engines, he writes.

How the framers of the Constitution created the Election Commission of India (ECI) two months before the rest of the Constitution commenced on January 26, 1950, is an eye-opener for the people, the government and the Election Commission of India. This sequencing was not a technicality; it was a profound constitutional choice, says SY Quraishi, former Chief Election Commissioner of India, in his Edit piece Why EC was born before the Republic. The framers knew that once the Constitution began to operate, India would require a government elected under its authority. The ECI, thus, had to be constituted before the Republic was born, so that the first government would derive its legitimacy not from an executive but from a constitutionally independent referee.