JALANDHAR – Paramjit Singh Sarna led Shiromani Akali Dal (Delhi) on Monday submitted a memorandum to BJP President Rajnath Singh on the issue of eviction of Sikh farmers from Kutch region of Gujarat and urged him to “direct” Modi to withdraw the case against the Sikh farmers in the Supreme Court.
“If he fails to comply, we would be forced to approach the Sikh’s highest temporal body, Akal Takht Sahib to pass directions to the entire Sikh community to launch a non-cooperation movement against Modi in view of his anti-Sikh activities,” Sarna said in the memorandum in a not so subtle warning also to the BJP President in the memorandum.
The memo also pointed out that this discriminatory attitude of BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate reflected very poorly on the entire party.
The memo also reminded the BJP president that the party needed to win the confidence of all minorities by following the policies of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Delhi’s former CM Madan Lal Khurana. “Modi, who considers himself as a nationalist, should have an honest approach towards these policies for the sake of country’s unity and integration,” SAD (Delhi) said.
“We are pained to point out the fate of Sikh farmers in your party ruled state of Gujarat, which is ruled by one of your top leaders, Narendra Modi, who is considered to be primeministerial candidate of your party. It was expected that like other states of India, Sikhs would also get a fair and equal opportunity in Gujarat to follow the vocation of their choice. However, the state government is apparently following an anti-minority policy in Gujarat to drive out the Sikh farmers from Kutch by snatching away their farming rights in Kutch. Pooling their meager resources, when these farmers managed to win their case in Gujrat High Court in a bid to save their properties, the state government gave further proof of its partisan policies by deciding to challenge the verdict in the Supreme court,” SAD (Delhi)’s memorandum added.
“Let us also take this opportunity to clarify that we have no intentions of politicizing this issue, but if Modi continued to pursue his anti-Sikh and anti-minorities policies by continuing to oppress the Sikh farmers of Kutch, then, all the Sikhs based in India and abroad would vociferously oppose him which can have an adverse effect on your party’s prospects in the coming elections. We appeal to you to amicably resolve this issue of Sikh farmers of Gujarat,” the Sarna led Akali Dal said.
