Oppose Modi’s rally: Cong to Sikhs

Chandigarh: Sukhpal Singh Khaira, PPCC spokesperson, has urged all Punjabis, particularly Sikhs, to boycott BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s rally at Jagraon in view of his “anti-Punjabi” policy displacing thousands of Sikh farmers from Gujarat.

In a press release issued here today, Khaira alleged that it was a matter of shame for the SAD, which claimed to be the champion of Sikh rights, to invite Modi and honour him at a time when he was bent on displacing 50,000 Sikh farmers from Gujarat.

Khaira said: “The Gujarat government headed by Modi is in the process of forcibly evicting thousands of Sikh farmers settled in the Kutch region for the past 50 years. Taking cover of the obsolete Bombay Lands and Tenancy Act, 1948, Modi has ordered confiscation of agricultural land of these farmers, despite the fact that they had toiled hard to convert barren land into productive soil”.

“It is shocking that even after the farmers won the case against their eviction in the Ahmedabad High Court, Modi has challenged it in the Supreme Court. In contrast, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda had returned land of Sikhs in Pehowa and Kurkeshetra despite the latter having lost the case in the Supreme Court,” he said.

Source: The Tribune