BJP trying to divest Brahmins of their ownership to donated land in Haryana: Cong

The Congress on Saturday accused the Haryana's BJP-JJP government of harassing the Brahmin community by "snatching away" their ownership rights of donated lands.

All India Congress Committee's communication department in-charge and senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said the BJP-JJP government's attempts to harass the Brahmin community by snatching away their ownership rights of donated land reflects the anti-Brahmin mentality of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

"Neither the Brahmin community nor the people of Haryana would ever forgive the BJP-JJP government for the arrogant decision and the government would have to bear the consequences," he said in a statement here.

Condemning the "conspiracy being carried out against the Brahmin community" by the Haryana government, he said the Congress party would firmly oppose it in the state.

Surjewala said in 2010, the Congress-led state government had bestowed ownership rights of donated land to people of Brahmin community by enacting a law in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha.

"On March 16, 2010, I myself had the privilege of drafting and presenting this important bill in the Haryana legislative assembly, due to which as many as 37,836 Dholidars and 3,838 Bhondedars respectively became owners of more than 14,187 acres and 5,000 acres of land," he said.

"But the BJP-JJP government has been trying to evict the Brahmin community from their land and snatching away the entitlements of about 50,000 Brahmin families," he added.

Questioning Chief Minister Khattar about his alleged "malicious and disrespectful attitude" towards the Brahmin community, he said the state government wants to take back the land for which the ownership rights were given by the Congress government by due legislation.

The state government had enacted a law in 2011 aimed at vesting property rights of land to 'dholidars' -- people from the Brahmin community who got this land as gift from big landowners nearly a century ago -- for a token compensation of Rs 500 per acre.

The state government now plans to amend the Haryana Dholidar, Butimar, Bhondedar and Muqararidar (Vesting of Proprietary Rights) Act, 2010, which was notified on February 21, 2011, to bar the creation of 'dholi' on the panchayat land.

The Punjab Settlement Manual described 'dholi' as landholding right acquired by a Brahmin on a small piece of land as a deathbed gift received from a landowner.

The person who acquires such a right is called 'dholidar' of that particular land.

The practice of creating 'dholi' was prevalent in parts of Haryana and Rajasthan centuries back and in some cases, people managed to acquire 'dholidar' rights on panchayat land too, though only a private individual can create such rights on his own land.