Decode Politics: Why a ‘Chandigarh vision document’ stirred up old tensions in Punjab?

THE PROPOSAL of INDIA bloc’s Chandigarh candidate, Manish Tewari, that the joint Punjab and Haryana capital be made a “city-state” was one of the issues that drew fire from politicians in Punjab across party lines during the elections.

On May 20, Tewari, the sitting Congress Anandpur Sahib MP, who is fighting in Chandigarh opposite the BJP’s Sanjay Tandon, unveiled his vision document for Chandigarh, which included this proposal. A city-state model would lead to “better governance” in Chandigarh, Tiwari said.

In its manifesto released on May 18, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which has in the past questioned Chandigarh’s continued status as a joint capital between Punjab and Haryana, said it was committed to renewing the fight for its inclusion in Punjab, along with that of other Punjabi-speaking areas that are right now in Haryana.

In the document called Ailan-Nama, the SAD said: “Chandigarh was categorically declared to belong to Punjab and was to remain a UT only for five years. We will fight the Centre’s betrayal of Punjab on this with renewed force.”

With Tewari repeatedly talking of making Chandigarh a city-state, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said on May 20: “The Congress and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) joint manifesto for the UT has unmasked the anti-Punjab face of both parties as they have surrendered Punjab’s right over Chandigarh by demanding state rights for the UT.”
He pointed out that under Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister, Chandigarh was to be the joint capital city of Punjab and Haryana for five years till Haryana developed its own capital.

Badal also talked in his campaign speeches about former PM Rajiv Gandhi “going back on his word” to hand over Chandigarh to Punjab on the cut-off date of January 26, 1986,