India Eyes Chandigarh, then Blinks

On 22 Nov, an Indian financial newspaper published a story that listed 10 Bills to be presented in the Winter Session of the Parliament from 1–19 Dec. Among the Bills was 'The Constitution 131^st Amendment Bill, 2025 which seeks to bring the Union Territory (UT) of Chandigarh under Article 240 of the Constitution'. Through Article 240, the President of India acquires powers to repeal or amend any act of Parliament or law applicable to Chandigarh through a regulation, bypassing the Parliament altogether. As the news spread, the primary message was that the Indian union government intends to replace the Governor of Panjab as the administrator of the Union Territory with a Lieutenant Governor appointed by the Union government. The move sparked fears of Panjab losing its claim on Chandigarh which was built as the Post-Partition capital of East (Indian) Panjab on the land of 22 Panjab villages. Upon trifurcation of East Panjab, according to Section 4 of the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966, Chandigarh was declared a UT. It was also supposed to be the joint capital of Panjab and Haryana for 10 years but the period has extended to 59 years. Under Article 239 of the Constitution, the union government can appoint anyone the administrator of a UT. However, since 1984, the Governor of Panjab has served as Chandigarh's administrator. This led to an uproar in Panjab among ruling and opposition parties except the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The uproar was accentuated by the ongoing protest by students of Panjab University to conduct elections to the Senate. However, on 23 Nov, the Union Home Ministry clarified that the Bill is ‘still under consideration’ and it had ‘no intention of introducing any Bill to this effect’ in the upcoming session of Parliament. For now, the issue is postponed but this sword dangles on Panjab’s head and can be resurrected anytime since BJP has the numbers in both houses of the Parliament. Since 1966, India has seen 13 new states created and every time the successor state makes a new capital. But not Haryana, despite having been paid to do so.