Diplomats had warned that Britain�s relations with India were in danger of melting down over the presence on UK soil of Jagjit Singh Chauhan
:dateline:Prosecutors were pressed by Margaret Thatcher to bring charges against a British-based Sikh nationalist accused of inciting the assassination of Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, according to secret government papers.
Diplomats had warned that Britain�s relations with India were in danger of melting down over the presence on UK soil of Jagjit Singh Chauhan, a militant who predicted before Mrs Gandhi�s death at the hands of her Sikh bodyguard in 1984…
Documents released at the National Archives in Kew, west London, reveal how Mrs Thatcher became exasperated after police and prosecutors insisted there were no grounds for prosecuting Mr Chauhan despite his trenchant rhetoric against India�s most illustrious political dynasty.
The former Conservative prime minister said she could not understand why Mr Chauhan, who was the founder of a movement campaigning for an independent Sikh state and moved to Britain in 1971, had managed to avoid being charged with inciting violence.
The death of Mrs Gandhi in October 1984, some four months after Mr Chauhan had predicted her death in a BBC Newsnight interview, provoked a furious reaction in Delhi, particularly among the inner circle of her son and successor as Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi.
Sir Robert Wade-Gery, the British High Commissioner in India, cabled London to warn that Mr Gandhi faced a high risk of being assassinated himself and such a fate would have grim consequences for the UK�s interests in the Sub-Continent.
