How Congress can harvest water politics in Punjab polls and leave Akalis helpless

On February 4, Punjab is going to elect the representatives for its 117 Assembly constituencies. Three key political forces - the ruling Akali Dal-BJP combine, the Congress and the emerging Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) - are engaged in a tough fight to capture power in this rich, as well as politically and strategically sensitive state.

Punjab is the wheat bowl of India as it contributes half of the total wheat procured in the country. Thus, besides the issues of massive drug abuse and deteriorating law and order, agriculture and water are concerns dominating the election debate in the state. With the election season here, the decades-old Punjab-Haryana water sharing dispute has come alive with renewed force.

After India's signing of the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan in 1960, the eastern rivers of the Indus system - Ravi, Beas and Sutlej - were used exclusively by east Punjab, on the Indian side.

However, with the reorganisation of states in 1966 and the creation of Haryana, a dispute ensued over sharing of these rivers between Punjab and its neighbouring states.

In 1966, Punjab lost its riparian status for the Yamuna, which now ran only through Haryana. In 1976, Haryana managed to receive water from the Ravi, while Punjab was denied water from the Yamuna.

However, the most controversial water sharing dispute between the two states continues over the decision to construct the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal in 1981. Once the 214km canal sees completion, it will transfer water to Haryana from the Sutlej.

Designed to transport 10,500 cusecs of water, the canal will provide 6,500 cusecs of water to Haryana. When its construction began in 1984, Punjab was already witnessing the peak of violent Khalistan movement.

Under the leadership of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal, protests were organised against the canal and militants killed a number of labourers and engineers engaged in the construction.

The portion of the canal in Haryana's territory has been constructed, but work on the Punjab side has remained in a limbo since 1990 - it lies in ruins and the canal turns into a big water channel flooding agricultural fields in the rainy season.

Punjab is no longer the water surplus state it used to be in 1970s and 1980s as it grapples with severe water scarcity. The state receives an average of 570 mm of rainfall.

This inadequate rainfall is also ill-distributed in time and space. The groundwater table in Punjab is also receding at an alarming rate because of the over-extraction of water resources to meet the agricultural demand.

In the face of increased water scarcity, the transfer of river water to Haryana has become difficult for Punjab to accept with its own farmers in dire need of irrigation water.

The growing scarcity in the state provided a golden opportunity to the ruling Akali Dal, which politicised the SYL canal issue in the past as the Congress party at the Centre was the force behind the water transfer plan.

Punjab's refusal to honour the commitment to build the SYL canal forced Haryana to approach the Supreme Court. In 2002, the apex court passed an order asking Punjab to resume the construction of the SYL canal, handing the Congress a prized tool to get even with the Akalis on the issue.

The then Congress government, headed by Captain Amarinder Singh, piloted the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act in 2004 in the Assembly, annulling all agreements on SYL canal with Haryana.Amarinder Singh went against the wishes of his central party leadership and took this unusual step, which made him a hero in the eyes of Punjab's farmers.

The2004 Act could not stand judicial scrutiny and, in November 2016, the Supreme Court declared this unilateral decision of Punjab invalid.

However, it has given the Congress party and its leader Amarinder Singh something to not only counter Akali Dal's rhetoric on the water dispute, but also expose the ruling party's vulnerability, particularly due to its alliance with the BJP.

Now, the BJP not only wields power at the Centre, but also, for the first time, has formed the government in Haryana. This changing political landscape considerably limits the scope for Akali Dal to use the SYL canal as an election issue, as this would put it in direct confrontation with its own alliance partner.

The Akali Dal's recent attempt to return the acquired land for the SYL canal to farmers has also been thwarted by the Supreme Court's intervention.

The BJP, in an effort to distance itself from being targeted by the Opposition, has tried its best to turn the water-sharing dispute debate from becoming a Punjab versus Haryana or Punjab versus Centre issue, seeking to make it an India versus Pakistan issue.

As recent as November 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his address at Bathinda, asserted in his trademark style that "each drop of water" that flows out of the rivers of Punjab to Pakistan must be stopped. 

Like the BJP, the new kid on the block, the AAP too is decidedly defensive about the SYL canal controversy.

Party chief Arvind Kejriwal's Haryanvi origin makes AAP vulnerable to any election issue resting on the Punjab versus Haryana fervour. Thus, while the BJP promises to increase water availability for Punjab by pledging to stop the water flowing into Pakistan, the AAP talks about spending more resources on repairing and building canals should it come to power - and to give priority to water harvesting.

These "abstract" promises of the BJP and the AAP to win more water for Punjab's farmers are not as effective in the election as the highly emotive SYL canal issue can be.

Akali Dal can no longer use the issue to its political advantage as it has done since the early '80s and Amarinder Singh's refusal to listen to the Congress high commands in 2004 and earnestness to terminate the previous agreements might bring him and his party considerable electoral dividends on February 4.