The makers of the documentary Final Assault, which looks at the water issue in Punjab but the 10 minute clip showed to members of the Punjabi-Indo-Canadian media on Tuesday largely had all the other wrongs the Indian government has done against Sikhs and Punjab, including 1984 atrocities and the attack on the Golden Temple and a kind of conspiracy against Punjab to ruin it whether the diverting water from Punjab to drugs and so on. But is the water issue the biggest concern in Punjab as India is facing drought and water shortage which affects 25 percent of the population in India. Drugs seem to be the biggest issue facing Punjab’s youth right now but the water issue seems to be political football.
At the press conference, there was much discussions on PM Narendra Modi’s new project – the Saraswati River-Channel – which is being dug right now to take water to Modi’s home state of Gujarat. The worry among the Crowd in the room and the filmmaker – writer-director Sukhdeep Singh – is that the water for the Saraswati will be taken from Punjab rivers. The film will be shown at Surrey’s Bell Centre this Sunday at 4pm.
****By R. Paul Dhillon
