SYL issue: Amarinder resigns from Lok Sabha; Cong MLAs, too, quit

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 10

Minutes after the Supreme Court announced its verdict on the SYL issue, Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday resigned from his Lok Sabha seat, even as all party MLAs quit their Assembly seats, in protest against the “injustice meted out to the people of the state”.

Amarinder has sent his resignation to the Lok Sabha Speaker and has also sought a personal meeting next week. The party MLAs have also sent their resignations to the Speaker, Punjab Assembly, and will meet him on Friday morning to personally hand over their papers.

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#WATCH: Captain Amarinder Singh talks about his resignation as MP, and statement of Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal calling it a drama pic.twitter.com/1jr7sywYF5

— ANI (@ANI_news) November 10, 2016

In his resignation, Amarinder said he had decided to quit as member of the 16th Lok Sabha from Amritsar constituency with immediate effect “as a mark of protest against the deprivation of the people of my state of the much-needed Sutlej river water.”

Describing the SYL judgment by the apex court as a “major blow to the people of Punjab,” Amarinder said he had always fought for their legitimate right on this issue and continues to stand by them at this critical juncture in the state’s journey.

Blaming the Akalis squarely for bringing the people of Punjab to this situation, where they faced imminent devastation due to acute water scarcity, Amarinder said Badal and his team had failed to defend Punjab’s stand in the court, leading to such disastrous consequences.

“The Akalis let down the people of Punjab on this critical issue, selling off their interests to Haryana,” Amarinder said, accusing the Badal government of promoting its vested political interests at the cost of the interests of the state.

“Badal has done to Punjab what even its worst enemy could not have done. He has plunged Punjab into a state of total despair,” said Amarinder, declaring that the people of the state would not forgive the Akalis for playing with their lives.

He said the Akali government had gone all out to scuttle every move of the Congress to bring relief to the people of Punjab in the SYL matter. Recalling that his government had tried to protect Punjab’s interests through the Punjab Termination of Agreements Bill, 2004, Amarinder said the Akalis, on the other hand, had exposed them to unprecedented hardship as a result of their failure to safeguard their interests in the court.

The Badals never had the interests of the people of Punjab at heart, as is evident from the way they have handled the issue all these years. The theatrics they are now indulging in, by demanding royalty for water-sharing and asserting that they would not allow a single drop of water to leave Punjab, are not going to save Punjab’s citizens, said Amarinder.

On the contrary, the preposterous idea floated by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to seek royalty from other states using Sutlej water would be even more detrimental to the interests of Punjab, since it was itself using water receiving from neighbouring Himachal Pradesh. “After helping out Haryana, it seems Badal is now trying to help Himachal, by suggesting that it should demand royalty from Punjab,” said Amarinder.