BHUJ, Gujarat, India— Aam Admi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal, currently on a Gujarat tour, asked the Modi government on Thursday why it wants to evict Sikh farmers from their land in Kutch. He said that the state government intends to grab the land since it is near the coastline and is valuable.
The anti-corruption crusader met with Sikh farmers of the state in the Abdasa block of the Kutch district. For generations, these farmers have been tilling the land from which they are being evicted.
These farmers have won their case in the Gujarat High Court, allowing them to return to their land, but the Modi government has appealed to the Supreme Court of India. Though there is no stay on the High Court order, the government is not implementing it under the pretext of the matter being subjudice.
After holding meetings with Sikh farmers, Kejriwal said that the Modi government was not ready to give them their land.
“The BJP government has hired senior lawyers in [the] Supreme Court in order to pave the way for snatching the land from Sikh farmers,” said Kejriwal, assuring the victims that he would take up their issues at the top level. A new ray of hope has emerged out of the Kejriwal’s visit with the Sikh farmers.
After the 1965 India-Pakistan war, at the behest of the then Indian Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, many farmers from Punjab and from Rajasthan were settled in the Kutch district. The decision helped to increase farm production. About three years ago, the Kutch collector invoked the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act of 1948 and froze the accounts of an unspecified number of non-Gujarati farmers. The farmers moved the Gujarat High Court, which ruled against the collector’s step. But the state government decided to challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court. The case is pending in the Apex Court.
Narendra Modi clearly lied during a rally in Jagraon by making the statement that not a single Sikh farmer in Kutch would be evicted and the responsible officers would be punished.
Kejriwal, is on a four-day visit to Gujarat to ascertain the tall claims of development being made by the state chief minister and BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Kejriwal, who began his visit in Gujarat on Wednesday had faced severe opposition on his first day there with an attack by right-wing BJP workers in Bhachau who smashed the windows of his car. Kejriwal was also briefly detained by the state police in Radhanpur town of Patan district for alleged violation of the model code of conduct.
Internationally, Modi has been accused of human rights violations—including genocide against minorities—but has not faced any prosecution in India.
