Punjab State Committee of the CPI(M) has accused Punjab Chief Parkash Singh Badal of betraying the interests of Punjabi peasants by his ignominious act of supporting the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate who is bent upon ousting more than 5000 Punjabi peasants’ families from Gujarat. Charan Singh Virdi, State Secretary of the party and Raghunath Singh, State Secretariat Member have in a press release, stated that the claims of Mr Badal of being a champion of peasants stand exposed yet again in the light of his opportunistic silence over the continued threat of thousands of bonafide domicile farmers being thrown out of Gujarat by the Modi government.

It may be recalled that Late Prime Minister Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri had invited peasants from Punjab to make the barren lands on the border in Kutch district of Gujarat cultivable in the aftermath of 1965 Indo- Pak conflict under the ‘ Grow More Food’ scheme. More than one lakh acres of such lands were converted into fertile lands over a period of five decades through hard labour of these farmers. But Modi government was now out to grab these prime lands in order to hand them over to a few corporates.

The statement underlined the fact that over a period of time some industrial units have come up in this area and they are now seeking land for expansion. Modi is out to appease them at the cost of these peasants . The CPI(M) leaders deplored the fact that the Modi government has refused to accept the order of the Gujarat High Court upholding the right of farmers over the reclaimed lands and has filed an appeal in the Supreme court against this order.

The party has decided to take this up in its campaign so that the people seek an answer from the Chief Minister.

April 15, 2014