LUDHIANA: Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Manish Tewari today asked the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab to clarify its stand about the Punjabi farmers inGujaratwho were being targeted just because they belonged to a particularly community and were threatened with Godhra like consequences if they refused to leave.

In a statement issued here today, Tewari said, the Gujarati farmers’ issue was still unsettled as the Gujarat government was vigorously pursuing its case against the Punjabi farmers in the Supreme Court of India and the matter was scheduled to come up for hearing in a few days from now.

The Union Minister pointed out, given the fact that there is a BJP government in Gujarat and the Akali Dal is in alliance with the BJP inPunjab, it becomes the duty of the Akalis to spell out their stand on the issue and also explain what it has done to safeguard the interest of the farmers. “Their (Akalis’) silence will be no less than their complicity in farmers’ eviction”, he remarked.

Tewari, who represents Ludhiana parliamentary constituency, asserted, “I want to ask the Akali Dal which always cries hoarse about guarding the interests of the Panth and Punjabis and has always been accusing Congress of being anti-Punjab and Punjabis, as why the party is maintaining a conniving and criminal silence on the issue”.

The Minister disclosed that he had learnt that the farmers were being warned and threatened that in case they did not leaveGujaratthere may be no guarantee that they might meet the same fate as what happened in Godhra in 2002. He pointed out, this is despite the fact that the Gujarat High Court had ruled in their favour.

Tewari said, apparently the Gujarat government was apprehensive that its case against the farmers was weak since its only motive was communal, hence it was trying to intimidate and threaten these farmers who had mustered courage and bought the land there in 1964 at the invitation of the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, in the Kuch area, as the country needed brave people to settle along the Indo-Pak border against any eventuality.