Modi draws flak for bid to force out Sikh farmers

The Narendra Modi government has ‘prima facie’ discriminated against the 500-member Sikh community in Kutch, a report by the National Commission for Minorities says.

The government had ordered the Sikhs to sell their land and return to Punjab because they were not Gujaratis, citing the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948.

The commission strongly disapproved of the interpretation that only Gujarati farmers could own or buy land in the state. The Sikh farmers’ land accounts have already been frozen.

“Modi, who has the habit of terrorising the minorities in Gujarat, was in this case victimising the Sikh farmers,” commission member Ajaib Singh said in the report.

The government’s order was struck down by the Gujarat HC but the verdict was challenged in the Supreme Court.

The commission has asked the Gujarat government to accept the high court’s verdict. Modi was also requested to administer a national minority scholarship programme and set up a state minorities commission.

Singh also wrote to Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to intervene in the matter.

‘Expose Modi’s lies’
Rahul Gandhi on Monday directed Gujarat party leaders to expose Narendra Modi’s “dangerous politics and lies”and to focus on issues to build pressure on the BJP government.