Just 24 days after the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Musewala, i.e. on 23 June 2022, his song was released on YouTube in the name of ‘SYL’. Within 72 hours of its release, this song was viewed by more than 27 million people on YouTube. After this, YouTube removed the song ‘SYL’ from its platform after getting a legal complaint from the central government.
In such a situation, today in Bhaskar Explainer know what was in the song of Sidhu Moosewala that even after his death, his song increased the heartbeat of the central government? After all, what is the ‘SYL’ ie Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal dispute between Punjab and Haryana?
Moosewala talks about water, Khalistani and murder in ‘SYL’ Song
Sidhu Moosewala’s song ‘SYL’, released on YouTube on 23 June 2022, talks about returning Punjabi history and identity. Along with this, Moosewala also talks about returning Chandigarh, Haryana and Himachal in the song. They say forget water, we will not give a drop until we give our sovereignty.
The same song further mentions the incident of 1990 Sutlej-Yamuna canal, in which two engineers were killed. In this song, Moosewala praised Balwinder Singh Jatana, the killer of both the engineers.
Along with this, the Sikh flags hoisted on the Red Fort on 26 January 2021 during the farmers’ movement, the 1984 Sikh riots, Sikh prisoners of Punjab and pro-Khalistan terrorists were also talked about in this song. This is the reason why this song started going viral only after its release. Later, on the instructions of the Central Government, the video of this song has been removed by YouTube.
66 years old ‘SYL’ canal dispute
between Punjab and Haryana The fight over water sharing between Punjab and Haryana is not new, but it is 66 years old. The matter dates back to 1955, when the states of North India such as Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan signed an agreement. In this agreement some areas of PEPSU i.e. present-day Haryana, Himachal and Punjab were also included. However, this agreement on water sharing was not successful in the coming times.
After this, when the state of Haryana was separated from Punjab on 1 November 1966, with this the matter of water dispute between the two states deepened. Later, to eliminate it, it was agreed to build a 214-km-long water route between the two states, the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal.
Under this, the Sutlej river was to be connected with the Yamuna river through a canal. 122 km long part of this canal was to be built in Punjab while 92 km part was to be built in Haryana. Both the state governments had promised to complete the remaining work of this canal before 1983 in the presence of Indira Gandhi in 1981.
In 1976, when Punjab did not build the canal, the matter reached the Supreme Court,
both the states of Haryana and Punjab together had to build this 214 km long canal. Punjab had 30 km more canal share, so the Haryana government had to give some money to the Punjab government to build the canal. Haryana had given the first installment of one crore rupees to the Punjab government in 1976 itself. After this, till 2006, about Rs 192 crore was given to Punjab to build the SYL canal.
At the same time, Haryana completed the construction of its share of the canal in 1980 by spending about Rs 250 crore. Punjab did not take much interest in building this canal. Due to which the dispute between the two states increased, so they filed separate petitions in the Supreme Court.