AMBALA: Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) on Tuesday wrote a second special letter to Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) through its secretary, Sarabjit Singh, asking the farmers’ front to clarify its stand on opposing those on constitutional posts and also on the attached maryada (code).
In the last eight months of a protest against three central agri-marketing laws, the morcha has confronted the officebearers, ministers, MPs, and legislators of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its alliance partner, the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), quite aggressively in Haryana. On July 31, the farmers targeted the convoy of BJP's Vijay Sampla in Talwandi Sabo, Bathinda, on his way to HSGMC president Baljit Singh Daduwal at Sirsa’s Dadu village. He had to divert towards Sirsa.
Out of the Sirsa farmers gathered outside Daduwal's house to oppose Sampla, police had booked nearly 700. Sampla told the media on August 31: “We recommended the superintendent of police to register a case against them for obstructing the official work of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) and violating the Disaster Management Act. The case was registered at the Kalanwali police station.”
On August 7, HSGMC secretary Sarabjit Singh wrote the first special letter to the SKM for information about its opposition of those holding constitutional offices. Without naming Sampla or his post of SC commission chairman, he wrote: “Settling personal scores in the name of kisan sangharsh (farmers' agitation) is defaming the movement. Tell us if the morcha ever called for opposing all holders of the constitutional posts.”
After getting no reply, it wrote a second special letter to the SKM on Tuesday (August 10), seeking even the code of opposition. It asked: “What is the maryada of the opposition. Whether it is making a murderous attack on a leader tearing his clothes, vandalising his car, or insulting him publicly.”
HSGMC president Daduwal said on Tuesday: “So far, we have no reply from the SKM. Sampla was coming to meet me as chairman of the NCSC and not a BJP leader. The issue was discrimination against the SC communities in religious affairs. The SKM should make its stand clear.” SKM’s Darshan Pal and Balbir Singh Rajewal did not answer the calls for comments. However, on the case against the Sirsa farmers, the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Haryana (Charuni) on Sunday threatened Daduwal to apologise within seven days or face a boycott.
