Modi meets second Sikh delegation in a month

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, meeting with a delegation of 100 prominent Sikh individuals at his home, said the contribution of the community to India’s freedom struggle is immense.

“The whole of India feels grateful for that. Be it the contribution of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the fight against the British or Jallianwala Bagh, without them neither the history of India is complete nor India is complete,” Modi said, as he spoke to those present donning a turban.

This is Modi’s second meeting with the Sikh community this month; on April 21, he addressed people from the Red Fort at an event to commemorate the 400th birth anniversary of the ninth Sikh guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, in a glittering function organised by the ministry of culture.

These meetings are seen as the party reaching out to the Sikh community. Their loss in the recently concluded Assembly polls in Punjab notwithstanding, the BJP is at work with overtures to the community.

Apart from Modi’s events, among the steps the party believes it has done for the community is the opening of the historic Kartarpur Corridor, considered a holy space for the community, and observing December 26 as Baal Veer Divas on the day Guru Gobind Singh’s sons Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh, were killed.

“The ‘84 Sikh riots cases opened only after Modiji came to power,” BJP Punjab president Ashwani Kumar Sharma told DH.

Leaders DH spoke to said that the party sees an opportunity in the Lok Sabha seats Punjab has to offer in 2024, and the party has said that it will contest the Sangrur
Lok Sabha by-election, as well as the four Municipal Corporation elections in the state on its own.

Party believes that this will also help them in the Jammu and Kashmir region largely.

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