Sikh farmers challenge Modi claims

Chandigarh: In a major embarrassment to the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, over a dozen Sikh farmers from Kutch are here to call Narendra Modi’s bluff.

There are nearly 5,000 Sikh families in the Kutch area of Gujarat that are affected by the Gujarat government’s decision to take back their land (by a misinterpretation of the Bombay Land and Tenancy Act).

Modi’s assurance during an election rally in Punjab last month that no Sikh farmer would be evicted from Gujarat sounds hollow. Every effort is now being made by the Gujarat government to snatch their farm land. If Modi were sincere, the Gujarat government would have withdrawn the case against them from the Supreme Court, say these farmers.

Now these Sikh farmers have put the Shiromani Akali Dal- BJP alliance in a tight spot. These are Modi’s very words at his Jagraon rally: “It is deliberate misinformation being spread by vested interested. No Sikh farmer will be evicted from Gujarat. If any officer tries to do that, that officer will no longer be around.”

Lakhshman Singh Bhullar, one of the farmers, said, “We are here to tell the truth to the people of Punjab.”

“The High Court had ruled in favour of the farmers yet Modi has gone to the Supreme Court to get the decision reversed while Badal is supporting Modi on the issue. They are trying their best to evict these farmers. Gross injustice is done to these farmers.”

The Gujarat government had in 2010 frozen bank accounts of the Sikh farmers who had gone to Kutch district in 1965 at the exhortation of the then prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.

An old law that purportedly bars non-Gujaratis from buying land in the state. Though, the farmers won the case in the Gujarat high court, the Gujarat government challenged the High Court orders in the Supreme Court.