Tewari asks SAD to clarify stand on Gujarat farmers
Monday, 19/08/2013
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LUDHIANA: Union minister for information and broadcasting Manish Tewari on Saturday asked the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) to clarify its stand on the Punjabi farmers in Gujarat who were being targeted “just because they belonged to a particular community and were threatened with Godhra-like consequences in case they refused to leave”.
In a statement issued here, Tewari said the Gujarat government was vigorously pursuing its case against the Punjabi farmers in the Supreme Court and the matter was scheduled to come up for hearing in a few days.
The union minister said given the fact that there is a BJP government in Gujarat and the Akali Dal was in alliance with the BJP in Punjab, it became the duty of Akalis to spell out their stand on the issue and also explain what it had done to safeguard the interest of the farmers. “The Akalis’ silence will be considered no less than their complicity in the farmers’ eviction,” he said.
“I want to ask the Akali Dal that claims to guard the interests of the Punjabis and accuses the Congress of being anti-Punjab and Punjabis as to why the party is maintaining a criminal silence on the issue,” the MP said.
The minister said he had learnt that the farmers were being threatened that in case they did not leave Gujarat they might meet the same fate as in the Godhra case. He said this was despite the fact that the Gujarat high court had ruled in their favour.
Tewari said that apparently the Gujarat government was apprehensive that its case against the farmers was weak, hence it was trying to intimidate and threaten these farmers who had mustered courage and bought the land in 1964 on the invitation of the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, in the Kutch area.
