Jagraon, Punjab (February 23, 2014): It is learnt that the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi said on February 23 that no Sikh farmer settled in Gujarat’s Kutch region will have to leave the state.
Addressing a rally in Punjab’s Jagraon town, about over 40 km from Ludhiana, Narendra Modi said “misinformation” was being spread that Sikh farmers, who were cultivating the land for decades, were being uprooted from the Kutch area by the Gujarat government.
“Let me assure you that no Sikh farmer will be forced to leave Gujarat. Instead, if any officer has done anything wrong (in this regard), he will have to go,” the Gujarat chief minister said.
Thousands of Sikh and Punjabi families settled in Kutch area of Gujarat in the 1960s and are cultivating land there.
But as per certain other media reports Narendra Modi did not make any mention about withdrawing Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by his government in the Supreme Court of India seeking evacuation of Sikh farmers of Kutch area from Gujrat.
It may be recalled that Narendra Modi government had ordered Sikh farmers to leave Gujarat and their land holdings were frozen after they were declared non-agriculturists on account of a interpretation of the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Land (Vidarbha Region and Kutch Area) Act 1958 by officials of the Gujarat government.
Notably the Gujarat High Court had given relief to farmers and stayed the orders of District Magistrate of Kutch but Narendra Modi’s Gurjrat government has moved to the Supreme court of India against High Court’s decision.