The Centre Thursday cancelled a function scheduled in Hussainiwala in Ferozepur on Friday to mark 100 years of Gang canal, which supplies water from Punjab to Rajasthan, and asked Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, who had landed at Amritsar airport late in the evening, to return to Delhi.
The decisions came reportedly after Punjab BJP unit warned the central leadership that sharing of waters with other states was already an emotive issue in state where farmers have in the past led protests against lion’s share of water going to Rajasthan via Gang canal.
The Centre’s U-turn comes soon after it had to backtrack on at least two other controversial decisions pertaining to Punjab — dissolving the senate and syndicate of Panjab University, changing the administrative structure of Chandigarh.
Meghwal, Union minister of law and justice, was scheduled to participate in a function a 7 am at Hussainiwala Friday to mark 100 years of the canal, foundation stone of which was laid on December 5, 1925 at Ferozepur in Punjab. Meghwal will now participate in another function at Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, which will be attended by CM Bhajan Lal Sharma.
Former Punjab Congress minister Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, who joined BJP ahead of 2022 polls, was also supposed to attend the function along with Meghwal. Sodhi’s son, Anumit Singh Hira Sodhi told The Indian Express that the function was cancelled. “It was a puja ceremony. PM Narendra Modi has called him (Meghwal) back to Delhi. He is flying back late at night.”
Earlier in the day, condemning BJP, Punjab LoP Partap Singh Bajwa said that it was “insensitive and politically provocative” decision to celebrate the centenary of the Gang canal from Punjab’s soil.
He said that the canal was constructed by the British to appease Maharaja Ganga Singh of the erstwhile Bikaner princely state. “This colonial-era arrangement, made without the consent of Punjabis, left Punjab’s farmers to bear the long-term ecological and economic consequences. The Gang canal was never a gift to Punjab —it was a political favour granted by foreign rulers at Punjab’s expense,” he said, adding that for Punjabis, the canal evokes memories not of development, but of historic injustice.
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He added, “Instead of addressing urgent issues such as groundwater depletion, collapsing canal systems, the agrarian crisis, the BJP has chosen to celebrate an episode of colonial appeasement that drained Punjab’s resources. This is not commemoration — it is provocation. The BJP is rubbing salt on Punjab’s historical wounds.”
Meghwal had also shared a poster on X, “This is a tribute to the remarkable legacy of good governance, foresight, and public welfare—a heritage that enriched the land of the region and gave a new direction to life.”
However, Punjab farmers questioned both the timing and the location of the celebrations.
