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Some friends termed it one hell of a scoop. It was funny to watch the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, claiming he was surprised and had no prior knowledge. Sonia Gandhi said she was also surprised. But The Indian Express readers were not. The Amarinder Singh government brought in the bill terminating water sharing agreements on July 12 in the Assembly. It was passed unanimously. Parliament exploded. Houses of Parliament were adjourned. Nation said it was shocked. No one knew, everyone said.

I knew.

On July 7, 2004, I filed this front page report in The Indian Express, clearly stating that a bill was on way, that former Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee was helping in drafting it, and that it would be brought before the Assembly on July 12, 2004 at 2 pm. How categorical a reporter can be? I even put Sorabjee's photograph too on front page, knowing fully well that he wrote a column for the newspaper and my job will be on the line if I was off the mark. I kept on filing stories day after day on the issue. The day the bill was passed, the Express had another scoop: the Governor had cleared it the same night. And the very next day, I brought forth the legal story behind the terminator bill.

While my editor, Mr Vipin Pubby, constantly appreciated the work and even put in a lead story in the newspaper about the series of stories I filed – an honour for any reporter when the fact that he broke the news makes lead news in his own newspaper – it was a heady feeling when Editor-in-chief Mr Shekhar Gupta mentioned my name in his immensely popular column National Interest.

Naturally, whenever I recall the Prime Minister’s face claiming he was totally unaware, I smile. I hope it’s not too smug.

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	"Newspapers always excite curiosity. No one ever lays one down without a feeling of disappointment." Charles Lamb, 1833 "Frankly, despite my horror of the press, I’d love to rise from the grave every ten years or so and go buy a few newspapers." Luis Buñuel, Spanish filmmaker 'I often wonder what future historians will say about us. One sentence will suffice to describe modern man: he fornicated and he read newspapers." Albert Camus, French novelist, dramatist, philosopher, 1956

Govt plans legislation to
escape SYL

S P Singh

Chandigarh

IN a far-reaching development, the Punjab government has decided to bring a Bill in the Assembly to counter the awkward obligation of handing over the entire SYL project to a central agency in accordance with the Supreme Court judgement on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal.

Within minutes of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh announcing his intention of convening a special one-day Assembly session on the SYL canal issue, the State Cabinet passed a resolution to be sent to the Speaker of the Assembly to call a session. Sources said that the Session is likely to be convened at 2 pm on July 12.

Though details of the Bill are being kept a closely guarded secret, former Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee is known to be helping in drafting it.

WHAT ELSE DID THE CENTRE WANT TO KNOW?

■ Bill will nullify all water sharing pacts with retrospective effect

■ Former AG Soli Sorabjee is helping in drafting it

■ Session is likely to be convened at 2 pm on July 12

■ K.R. Lakhanpal is anchoring the entire legislative exercise

■ Not clear about Supreme Court stance on this development

■ Legislation aimed at scrapping the contractual agreement argument

"Since the Supreme Court judgement has clearly observed that the decree did not relate to the quantum of waters to be shared between Punjab and Haryana, the Punjab was under obligation to construct the SYL canal because of its agreement with the states of Haryana, Rajasthan and the Union of India in 1981, the new legislation is aimed at scrapping the contractual agreement argument," said a senior official.

Principal Secretary (Irrigation) K.R. Lakhanpal is anchoring the entire legislative exercise, said sources.

Experts who have been long dealing with the SYL issue said the entire exercise is aimed at nullifying the agreement with retrospective effect. But they are divided about the view the Supreme Court may take of such a development. Punjab's review petition in case of the judgement of June 4 delivered by Justices Ruma Pal and P Venkatarama Reddi is still to be taken up by the same bench.

As it is, the Punjab government had come in for a strong rap by the apex court which had accused the state of filing suits "only with a view to subvert the decision of this court with all the disingenuousness of a private litigant to resist its execution."

But such a dim view of its earlier efforts has not discouraged the government from going ahead with a new legislation. "The political fallout of any move to build SYL is so far-reaching that the government is forced to look out for a face-saver," said an official. Punjab government has already sought an appointment from the President as well as the Prime Minister for an audience with an all party delegation.■

July 7, 2004

Also See:

― Govt mulled tweaking 131-yr-old Act for SYL
― CM to meet Sorabjee today
― Punjab annuls all Ravi-Beas pacts...
― My days numbered, said CM
― SYL: Centre's eyes were wide shut
― How CM’s Team Legal found an enabling loophole
― Experts say Punjab Act dilutes riparian concept
― Capt plays to the gallery, works the back-channels
― Capt finds solace in Narmada Tribunal’s report
― State suggested Presidential Reference
―'Presidential Reference is good news'
― Capt changes tune
― Amarinder demanded this in '87

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Red Handed?

“For a man who seemingly spends so little time with his pants on,” Hotline columnist Susan Semeleer opined, “Congressman Gary Condit has a remarkably well-developed instinct for covering his ass.” When Condit's intern Chandra Levy disappeared in 2001, many suspected foul play, particularly when he later admitted that the couple had been having an affair.

Indeed, such was the outcry that protesters began to picket outside Condit's office. Among the lines which they chanted into their megaphones was: “Gary Condit! Come out with your pants up!”

Riot Act

Such was his ineptitude as a public speaker that David Hartley (a member of Parliament for Hull and the son of the famous philosopher of the same name) regularly emptied the House of Commons when he rose to speak.

On one occasion in 1783, having culled the audience from about three hundred to eighty (most of whom were half asleep), Hartley demanded that the clerk of the House read the text of the 1765 Riot Act to illustrate an obscure point which he was trying to make. At this point Edmund Burke leaped to his feet. "The Riot Act? The Riot Act!?" he cried. "To what purpose? Don't you see that the mob is already quietly dispersed?"

(Source: Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes)

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