National Commission for Minorities (NCM) member Ajaib Singh today appealed to the Punjab Chief Minister to intervene with his Gujarat counterpart on behalf Sikh farmers who are facing eviction from Kutch district after having resettled there.
Singh said he had asked Punjab CM and SAD leader Parkash Singh Badal to urge the Narendra Modi-led BJP government to withdraw its appeal in Supreme Court challenging a Gujarat High Court ruling against the eviction of the Punjabi farmers.
SAD and BJP are partners in the National Democratic Alliance.
Singh said he has written to the Punjab CM seeking his help in the matter.
"It is a well-known fact that the Gujarat CM and his party need you much more than you need (them). SAD is an important ally of BJP and... Can employ tremendous leverage over (Modi).
"Hence, it is your solemn responsibility to persuade him to withdraw the appeal in SC against the decision in favour of the Sikhs farmers of Kutch," Singh has said in the letter.
After the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965, several Sikh farmers from Punjab migrated to the Bhuj area of Gujarat's Kutch district.
The then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who was instrumental in the migrations, had said that Sikh farmers would not only make the land cultivable but also help guard the country's border.
As many as 1,000 Sikh families from Punjab and Haryana had made the shift to Gujarat at the time.
Singh said he was sure that with Badal's intervention, the Gujarat government would withdraw their appeal in SC and grant relief to the Sikh farmers.
Singh has submitted a six-page report to the Centre in which he suggests that Gujarat government should drop its appeal in order to win the confidence of minority communities.
