'Govt indifference? Gujarat's Sikh farmers 'attacked' in Kutch, political turn in Punjab

Sikh farmers from Loria village

By A Representative
A small town in Kutch district, Loria, is once again in news more than a year after the local Sikhs settlers were attacked by powerful persons in the region in October 2013. Sikh farmers from the village have complained to their brethren in Bhatinda district in Punjab that political activists associated the ruling BJP of district Bhuj have “attacked” them. Punjab media, quoting Loria farmers, said, farmer Jagjeet Singh was “injured” though “others managed to save their lives with difficulty”. The attackers destroyed the two cars.
The attack took place, said the reports, after two farmer brothers, Jaswinder Singh and Harwinder Singh, originating from village Pitho of Bathinda district, found that a Gujarat government had ordered survey of their land in Loria. They went to see what was happening and why their land was being surveyed. When they were about to return, a local BJP leader and former sarpanch of the village “attacked them with a crowd.”
Quoting the two farmers, Angrej Singh reportedly told mediapersons in Bhatinda that “the culprits broke the rear glass of his car and also the glasses of a Maruti car.” Amandeep Singh of Kotakpura added the Bhuj Police “did not provide them security despite a written request.” The survey was allegedly being carried out with the intention of “acquiring” their agriculture land.
A Bhatinda datelined story said, “According to collected information, the Gujarat government has allotted the work of computerization of agriculture land to a private firm”, adding, “It is noteworthy that Sikh farmers and other minorities are being targeted in Gujarat from the day the BJP under leadership of Narendra Modi started ruling Gujarat.”
Yet another report blamed the land mafia in Kutch desert for trying to “scare” and “take the land over from the Sikh farmers settled there”, adding “The local farmers have said the police and government officials are not providing them any security and they feel insecure.”
A month ago, according to reports, people in the village had stopped the agency officials from demarcating land belonging to the Sikh farmers. The district revenue authorities and the police again sent the agency officials to accomplish demarcation, which became the reason for the protest by Sikh farmers, and violent retaliation.
Sikh farmers from the village say, after 440 acres of land were allotted to Sikhs 300 acres have already been taken over by the government and small chunks of land are being fraudulently registered on names of local people.
Meanwhile, the matter is already taking a political turn in Punjab, with former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal saying it was “unfortunate and shameful on the part of Modi government at centre and BJP government in Gujarat for failing to tackle the situation regarding frequent attack being carried on Sikh farmers in villages in and around Bhuj region.”
“The farmers settled in the Bhuj region for more than six decades had been living under constant fear from land mafia which seems to have patronage from BJP in Gujarat. Sikh farmers have made repeated requests to state government and Modi government at centre to ensure security for them adding that it has fallen on deaf ears”, she said.
In October 2013, four Sikh farmers were injured by 30 armed men in Loria village, situated 15 km from Bhuj, district headquarters of Kutch district. In a complaint with the police, the Sikhs named the then Anjar BJP legislator Vasanbhai Ahir as the perpetrator. "On October 3, a group from Loria questioned our ownership of the land. We showed them the papers, and after satisfying them, started sowing rindi (oil seeds)," media reports quoted Amandeep Singh as saying.”

Comments

Vin1992 said…

they are not local people they are rich people settled there,shashtri gave them land over which they had no right,will Punjab give gujarati their own land for ownership

February 02, 2023

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By A Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.

Weaponizing faith? 'I Love Muhammad' and the politics of manufactured riots

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* A disturbing new pattern of communal violence has emerged in several north Indian cities: attacks on Muslims during the “I Love Muhammad” processions held to mark Milad-un-Nabi, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad. This adds to the grim catalogue of Modi-era violence against Muslims, alongside cow vigilantism, so-called “love jihad” campaigns, attacks for not chanting “Jai Shri Ram,” and assaults during religious festivals.

Counterview

Search This Blog