india

Updated: Jan 10, 2020 06:51 IST

When Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination in New Delhi by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984 triggered anti-Sikh violence, the impact was felt as far away as Karahal in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district. Around a dozen Sikh families were uprooted from Karahal in 1984 in the face of the violence. They returned a decade later to pick up the pieces and rebuild their lives. Many of them bought land.

Now, two-and-half decades later, 11 Sikh families in Karahal are back where they started, after authorities demolished their farmhouses and levelled their crops to the ground from December 21 to December 31, 2019, as part of an anti-encroachment drive. The families are accused of buying tribal land on the basis of forged papers and also encroaching upon forest and government land.

Government officials said tribal land in Karahal cannot be transferred to non-tribals according to the Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code. Even transfer of land between non-tribals in such areas is disallowed without permission. Officials said no outsider is allowed to buy land there to protect the tribal ecosystem.

The officials said the issue became a bone of contention only in the recent past when the tribals started demanding return of their land taken by Sikhs. During the Congress government came to power in December 2018, it started the process to check validity of the land documents, after which the demolition process started, said district collector Pratibha Pal.

The Sikh residents of Karahal have accused the authorities of bias. “The SDM [sub-divisional magistrate Rupesh Upadhya] and tehsildar [PN Parmar] called us rioters and militants and said ‘You [Sikhs] were driven out in 1984 but you returned’,” said Gurmeet Singh, a local resident.

He said eight to 10 Sikh families left Karahal and returned to their villages in Punjab and Haryana in 1984. They returned a decade later with more Sikh families, who also bought land.

Kehar Singh, 73, another resident, said they were served no notices. “They did not give us any time to even remove our belongings.”

He said he came to Karahal from Sirsa in Haryana in 1996 and built a farmhouse.

His neighbour, Surendra Singh, said that he, along with his wife and three daughters, were forced to spend a cold night under the open sky when their house was demolished. “The administration did not show any mercy to even my little daughters, who pleaded with them to stop the demolition.”

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a government official said Karahal is a notified scheduled tribe area, where non-tribals from outside are not allowed to own land. “They do not have any legal document to prove their rights over the land in their possession. We adopted a legal procedure to take action against encroachment,” the official added.

Pal denied allegations that the Sikhs were singled out. “Action was taken against 23 persons belonging to several castes. Over 326 acres of government land was freed from encroachers. The possession of the land was returned to 34 people belonging to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities. In 12 villages, over 657 acres of land was identified to have been occupied with the help of fake papers.”

Harendra Singh Rajawat, a local businessman, said some Sikh families also had revenue, forest and tribal land under their possession. “In this, both [Sikhs and tribals] benefited,” he said. He added that the Sikhs gave tribals annual rent of up to Rs 6,000 per acre and also employed them in their farms for wages of about Rs 150 daily.

Rajawat said the problem started about a decade ago when the Sikhs made barren land cultivable. “On the land on which only maize and barley would grow, they started producing wheat, paddy and mustard. It is then that some local elements provoked tribals to try getting back their land which is as good as gold now.”

Karahal sarpanch Nandkishore, a tribal, said the Sikhs say they taught the tribals farming and raised their living standard. “But they made fortunes while cultivating our land and we continue to be poor.”

Tribal leader Mukesh Malhotra, who was arrested for raising slogans like “Sardar bhagao Karahal bachao [throw out Sikhs, save Karahal)”, accused the Sikhs of occupying tribal land.

Delegations of Sikh organisations including the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) and Shiromani Akali Dal have visited the area and blamed the government for harassing the Sikhs.

DSGMC head Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who is a member of the Delhi assembly, accused the state Congress government of trying to throw Sikhs out of Madhya Pradesh.

The Akal Takht’s acting head, Giani Harpreet Singh, on Monday referred to Sikh eviction from Madhya Pradesh and said the community was unsafe in Pakistan as well as India.

Congress leader Narendra Saluja said the state government is committed to ensuring justice to all, including Sikhs.