Uttar Pradesh government seizes land of over 30,000 Sikh farmers

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The Indian government has confiscated the farmland of more than 30,000 Sikh farmers in Uttar Pradesh.

The state, which is governed by the BJP political party, sent police to displace Sikh farmers from around 17 villages of districts Rampur, Bijnaur and Lakhimpur. The farmers have lived in Uttar Pradesh for three generations, many emigrating during the the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. The families converted desolate forests to arable land, while enduring the hardships inflicted on them by partition.

The UP government sent police officers along with JCB demolition machinery to Champatpur village to displace the Sikh families on 3rd June 2020, but they did not succeed in their objective, according to Jasveer Singh Virk, spokesperson for the Sikhs of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

“However, the police party returned back with hundreds of other cops and destroyed Sugarcane crop in several acres of village Champatpur,” he said, adding that all the 300 houses of village Champatpur belong to Sikhs.

He also explained that Sikhs are being targeted specifically as the UP government intends to build a State Armed Police’s Centre in the state.

“The police also tried to take over the hard earned land of around 300 Sikh families living in village Ran Nagar but the villagers didn’t let them do so after which a case has been registered against 35 identified and 250 unidentified Sikhs,” he said.

He added that the Sikh families have not been given any compensation for the 3000 acres taken from them for Guru Nanak Sagar Dam.

Video footage has also surfaced of a mob of villagers in Uttar Pradesh severely assaulting a Sikh youth and desecrating his turban by throwing it into a sewer.

“The UP government is devastating Sikh farmers without any prior notice despite knowing that majority of these farmers have their cases pending in the High Court,” he said.

The families have approached the Deputy Commissioners of respective districts appealing them not to be displaced Sikhs during this difficult time of pandemic, but their appeals were rejected.

The SAD political party has pledged to take up the issue with Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanand and Home minister Amit Shah.

Sikh Gurdwara management committee, the SGPC, has also condemned the move by the UP government. The group said that its junior vice president Gurbakhsh Singh Khalsa is leading an investigation into the situation.

The situation facing Sikhs in Uttar Pradesh has striking similarities to the treatment received by the Dalit community in the state. This past week, 35 people were arrested, including Samajwadi political party leader Javed Siddiqui, for setting Dalit houses on fire.

Meanwhile the Sikh community in Madhya Pradesh also continues to suffer the same treatment as Sikhs in UP, having been displaced from their homes by the government.

The Sikh Press Association reported in January how 500 Sikhs have been displaced and had their homes demolished in Madhya Pardesh, the state where infamous politician Kamal Nath resides as chief minister.

Spokesperson for the Sikhs of Uttar Pradesh Jasveer Singh Virk has appealed the worldwide Sikh community to raise voice for these Sikh farmers in order to help them from getting displaced from their land.

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