Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa on Sunday dubbed Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi an "anti-minority" leader.
He said the Gujarat chief minister had not made any commitment at the Jagraon rally to withdraw the special leave petition (SLP) from the Supreme Court against the Sikh farmers being ousted from their land in his state. "Modi has disappointed the people of Punjab who had high hopes that on his visit, he would announce the withdrawal of the SLP," Bajwa stated here.
The Modi government had filed the SLP in the apex court against the stay granted by the Gujarat high court to the Sikh farmers upon the evacuation of their agricultural land. Bajwa said it was "shameful" that Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had been unable to
convince Modi to withdraw the petition.
The Gujarat government had frozen the land holdings of the Sikh farmers, after which the Gujarat high court had given them relief and stayed the orders of the Kutch district magistrate.
"Modi should first apologise to the nation for the killings of Muslims in Gujarat under his rule, and then speak of social integrity and communal harmony," said the Punjab Congress president. "Christians, too, saw their places of worship burnt to the ground (in Gujarat) and now Sikh farmers face eviction and loss of their land rights," he added.
Bajwa took a dig at Modi for the latter's asserting that drugs entered Punjab from the other countries, and blamed the Shiromani Akali Dal leaders, BJP's alliance partners, for the supply. "Modi should find out about the Enforcement Directorate notice to Punjab revenue minister Bikram Majithia and Damanjit Singh, son of jail minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur, for their involvement in the drug trade," said the Congress leader, adding: "It is a serious matter that the state BJP leaders have kept him in the dark."
{{/usCountry}}Bajwa took a dig at Modi for the latter's asserting that drugs entered Punjab from the other countries, and blamed the Shiromani Akali Dal leaders, BJP's alliance partners, for the supply. "Modi should find out about the Enforcement Directorate notice to Punjab revenue minister Bikram Majithia and Damanjit Singh, son of jail minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur, for their involvement in the drug trade," said the Congress leader, adding: "It is a serious matter that the state BJP leaders have kept him in the dark."
{{/usCountry}}Bajwa said the union government led by his party had decided to accept the ex-servicemen's long-pending demand of "one rank, one pension". He ridiculed Modi for making the same promise.