Bikram Singh Majithia asks Rahul Gandhi to explain his stand on Sutlej-Yamuna Link issue

Chandigarh: Punjab Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia on Friday alleged that Congress High Command and the state unit of the party are "speaking in different voices" on Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal issue and asked Rahul Gandhi to explain his stand on it.

"It is surprising that Rahul Gandhi is maintaining silence on such a sensitive issue. Since the Gandhi family has been responsible for the construction of SYL canal and robbing Punjab of its waters, it is incumbent on Rahul Gandhi to explain the current view of the party," he said.

"Punjab has suffered tremendously in the past due to the anti-Punjab stand of Congress High Command. Former prime minister Indira Gandhi even brow beat the then Punjab chief minister and forced the state to sign away its waters to Haryana paving way for construction of SYL canal," he claimed.

While last afternoon, Punjab Congress led by its legislature party leader conducted a "sham exercise" to fill up the SYL canal after farmers had started filling it up one day earlier, the Congress High Command was still to spell out its stand on the issue, the SAD general secretary alleged.

"It was only after the historic resolution moved by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, under which land for SYL canal de-notified and transferred back to the farmers, that the issue has finally found closure," he said.

"Now that the SYL canal itself has been made history by the CM, the Congress High Command and Rahul Gandhi should support the SAD-BJP alliance wholeheartedly," Majithia said.

"However, in case the Congress High Command and the Punjab unit of the party continue to speak in two different voices on the issue, the people of Punjab will understand that the party is following its age-old policy of discrimination and is not interested in getting justice for the state," he added.