Is Punjab going down the drain? Shiv Pratap note

please see that punjab is not going down as is commonly perceived...what has happened is that like every economic cycle, the agro cycle too has reached its logical saturation point...we have seen immense growth in the last 30/40 years...now one can grow only so much food in given land...new imponderables have to brought in like genetically modified strains or food processing technologies to add more value to the products.. ...if punjab is going to dogs then how do u explain rising land costs ..?..u can't eat a chapati that is not baked, if people are spending then it must come from somewhere...which shows that they are definitely affluent and in good measure....how do u explain the fact the punjab with only 2 % of national population contributed 3 % to the National GDP...a staggering share .and that too with only agro produce which cannot hold a candle to engineering products....drugs/ alcohol is typically a problem of abundance not poor population and definitely of sociological nature with cultural nuance... punjab has always had opiates consumed in noticeable quantities ....how is it that punjabi's spend so much if they are being economically ruined....regarding the femicide...that too is asocial problem compounded by diagnostics technology...its not an economic thing....so lets not be alarmist but surely reforms and refinements are needed...there is no Q. about it...but not in the fashion that is being brandished about.. Shiv Pratap on Facebook (Punjab Siasat) February 14, 2012.

Badal and I ( On Valentine's day !!)0

Mmy love and respect for PSB is based on certain values which we have both respected between ourselves. As a politician, I understand he has to take some flak and I understand also why everyone can not share my view of him; not everyone is supposed to. We all have our own private heroes in life. He is mine, just as Captain Saab is Swarnjeet Singh Brar 's and Manpreet Badal of some others. We are all within our zones to admire them. I grant also that attachment with PSB is of a profoundly emotional nature which may sometimes make it difficult for me to see and be fair to his critics'view of him . But I am also conscious that Punjabis have repeatedly opted for this man as their voice. They could have been wrong once or twice but not time and again, and over a period long enough to span four generations of people. I am also aware that his critics, Captain AS included, speak so highly of his personal qualities -- I know that for a fact.Till Manpreet parted ways with us, PSB was a God even unto him, as was borne out by his later announcement "Tu saada rabb nahin, te asin tere bande nahin." What a huge moral burden lay hidden behind that one brave but painful sentence, Manppreet perhaps would be only one to know that I understand this despite our differences. Its a subject worth a book, and may be someone will do justice to it one day, doing justice to Manpreet and Sukhbir at the same time.....Coming to my own relationship with PSB, for the better part of my life, I have kept it free from taint of any kind --keeping it morally, spiritually and emotionally a virgin whose innocence is inviolate. I say it with a mixture of pride and humility. No shadow of guilt scars my attachment with him --and I know I owe it to someone in my life to have kept my priorities straight and upright. March 6 is too inconsequential a date in a relationship of such substance. He knows I have issues with the Chief Minister but none with the man.