Chandigarh Lok sabha election 2024 : The announcements by the Punjab political parties may create tensions between Haryana and Punjab

The Lok Sabha 2024 election is coming to an end as the polling concludes on Saturday evening. The final and 7th phase includes 57 seats across 8 states and Chandigarh, which is a Union Territory. But the announcements for Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat by the major political parties of Punjab may create a new rift between the two neighbors, Haryana and Punjab. 

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the oldest political party in Punjab, which had previously questioned Chandigarh's continued status as a joint capital between Punjab and Haryana, declared in its manifesto released on May 18 that it was dedicated to resuming the fight for Chandigarh's inclusion in Punjab, along with that of other Punjabi-speaking areas that are currently in Haryana.

The Akali Dal document was named “Ailan Nama” and mentions the fight for Chandigarh, it reads, “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.” The congress politician and the INDI Bloc candidate from Chandigarh, Manish Tewari took another line about Chandigarh and said that the mutual Haryana and Punjab capital be converted to a “city-state” changing its status from Union Territory. This irked a lot of politicians across Punjab who criticized Tewari for his compromising stand on Chandigarh.

"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," SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said on May 20, about Tewari's repeated talks of turning Chandigarh into a city-state.

 Notably, the creation of Chandigarh has been controversial since its inception. As Shimla was announced as Indian Punjab's interim capital following the tumultuous Partition, the idea of Chandigarh was conceived because Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wanted Punjab's capital to be a modern metropolis. Le Corbusier was tapped to design the metropolis, employing a grid street pattern, European-style boulevards, and raw concrete buildings – a distillation of ideas formed across his lifetime.

 On September 21, 1953, Shimla was formally replaced as the capital of Chandigarh. After a decade, the mountainous regions of Punjab were given to Himachal Pradesh, and the Punjab Reorganisation Act of 1966 separated the state of Punjab into the new state of Haryana and the new Union Territory of Chandigarh, which is directly ruled by the central government through the administrator. The UT of Chandigarh became the common capital of both Punjab and Haryana, and properties were divided between the two states in a ratio of 60:40.

Over time the capital Chandigarh became a controversial issue and the political parties of Punjab repeatedly urged the central government to merge Chandigarh with Punjab. But since 1966, Chandigarh as capital city of Haryana also became an emotional issue for the Haryanvi people and their identity. The politicians of the brother states had been at loggerheads with each other since Chandigarh became the common capital of both states.

In an attempt to get back Chandigarh, Harchand Singh Longowal, the leader of the Akali movement, and then-prime minister Rajiv Gandhi signed the Rajiv-Longowal Accord on July 24, 1985. According to the agreement, Chandigarh was to be given to Punjab by the Central government, and the date of the transfer was set for January 26, 1986. However, militants killed Longowal less than a month after the agreement was signed and the process was stalled afterward.

Now, the political leaders and political parties of Punjab have brought back the issue of the Chandigarh issue amidst the ongoing national election, which can be another big issue in the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana and can create tensions between both states. Looking at the recent 2022-2023 dispute over the service rules and SYL issue, the Chandigarh issue is a big one and can’t be left to just political bragging. The issue needs to be resolved amicably as over the years neither of the brother states has benefited from this political entanglement over the city beautiful, Chandigarh.