Suppression of Sikhs will intensify separate territory demand: SGPC magazine

The editorial was written to raise the issue of eviction of Sikh farmers in UP.

Increase in suppression of Sikhs in the country will lead to intensification of demand for independent territory among them, the monthly magazine of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has stated in its recent editorial.

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This has come around a month after the gurdwara body president Gobind Singh Longowal endorsed the remark made by Akal Takht acting jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh in favour of Khalistan, the idea of an independent Sikh state.

Written by its editor Satwinder Singh Phoolpur, the editorial appeared in the July 2020 edition of the magazine titled Gurmat Parkash. It raises the issue of confiscation of farmland of scores of Sikh farmers living in Uttar Pardesh by Yogi Adityanath-led state government.

Strongly lodging protest against the UP government’s move, the editorial reads, “Seizing land of the Sikhs by the government is not an action that has been taken all of a sudden. This is the policy of the government to eliminate the Sikhs….This environment of alienation has given rise to demand of independent territory for Sikhs. As suppression on Sikhs increases, the demand for independent territory will get more intensified.”

“Today they have seized farmland and tomorrow they take over outlets, factories and other Sikh establishment, if we keep mum,” it further reads.