The Punjab Congress on Saturday asked deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to explain as to why he was not taking up the cause of Punjabi farmers of Gujarat, who were being displaced from their land under a state-sponsored programme, with the BJP.
In a statement here, All India Congress Committee national media panellist and Punjab Congress spokesman Jaiveer Shergill said the inability of the SAD to protect the interests of Punjabis was a warning signal for the Sikhs of Delhi as well as those in other states and Punjab that they might also be treated in the same manner.
Shergill appealed to Punjabis to reject the SAD-BJP "unholy" alliance in the forthcoming assembly elections in Delhi to teach them a lesson that such opportunistic politics would not be allowed to succeed.
Shergill said it was condemnable that the deputy chief minister had failed to come to the rescue of 20 farmers of Loria village in Bhuj who had been recently attacked by the land mafia that wanted to take over their land.
"This despite the fact that the Bhuj police had registered cases against the Punjabi farmers instead of arresting the locals who fraudulently got 20 acres of land of a Punjabi farmer registered in their name," he said, adding that the farmers of Loria village in Bhuj continued to be persecuted despite the fact that the Gujarat administration had acquired 300 acres out of the total 440 acres belonging to 22 Punjabi families of the village," Shergill said.
{{/usCountry}}"This despite the fact that the Bhuj police had registered cases against the Punjabi farmers instead of arresting the locals who fraudulently got 20 acres of land of a Punjabi farmer registered in their name," he said, adding that the farmers of Loria village in Bhuj continued to be persecuted despite the fact that the Gujarat administration had acquired 300 acres out of the total 440 acres belonging to 22 Punjabi families of the village," Shergill said.
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