In a statement, the Sikh Council UK has put the recent attacks down to the continued success in lobbying MP’s and working with the Government. Sikh Council UK sent a number of politicians across the parties letters of thanks and support. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, similar to a Christmas card but once every five years.
Heaven forbid but one of them was to former Conservative party MP Paul Uppal. Why has this letter picked up so much on social media by trolls? Because of politics played out by certain Sikh organisation who supported the Labour candidate Rob Marris over Uppal.
Why send a card to say thank you or happy new year?
Very simply to show appreciation. In a recent statement, the Sikh Council UK had stated, “They had all supported some aspect of the Councils work and it was only good manners to thank them and wish them well as their term in office came to a close. We will also be writing to a few of them to congratulate them over the next day or so and start opening up channels of communication.”
Sikh Council UK did exactly what any other organisation in their position would do. What raises the question is why did other organisations not do the same?
“It is open knowledge that Paul had been very supportive in opening the door towards dialogue on correcting the legislative anomaly in relation to right to wear the dastaar in workplaces… I have acknowledged it as it is the right thing to do.”
The reason why the letter to Uppal made the headlines is the time in which he decided to release it. Uppal saw fit to publish the letter on his facebook just before polling day. He was in it to win it. Anyone else in his position would have done the same especially as it was such a tight race.
“The letter was sent to Paul Uppal on the 3rd of May 2015 and it would appear that he placed it on his Facebook late in the evening of the polling day on the 7th May. He could have done so sooner but clearly chose not to, nevertheless; that’s a matter for him.”
Paul Uppal was made out to be anti-Sikh, if you were talking about the Jews you may even compare it to be anti-Semitic. Yet whilst one may not agree with all his decisions, you can’t write man off for everything. He held events promoting Sikhs in parliament and helped open doors.
At the end of the day, it seems clearly due to the number of articles being published by one website that someone has hand in washing dirty laundry in public. What’s astonishing is the average well educated British Sikh person who is choosing to share these articles on personal Social media.
