Photo: PA
:dateline:Sikh organizations have expressed their disappointment at the Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond for pulling out of a visit to Singh Sabha Gurdwara Sahib in Southall, London.
He was due to make a statement to the Sikh congregation and widespread rumours of a statement regarding a government update regarding Bhai Parmjit Singh Pamma, currently faing extradition to India in Portugal. Whether Indian/Portuguese pressure�was the cause of this cancellation is unknown. The official reason given by a foreign office spokesman was “due to parliamentary business and a forthcoming business trip abroad”.
General Secretary of the Sikh Federation (UK), Bhai Narinderjit Singh, said,��The Sikh community is deeply disappointed that the Foreign Secretary has pulled out at the last minute.� We were hoping to hear from Philip Hammond himself that the Foreign Office were doing all they could and making it clear to Portugal that Parmjit�Singh must be returned to the UK without delay.�
�Instead there is speculation that the Indian authorities are putting unreasonable pressure on the UK Government.� They listen more to the Indian authorities than British Sikh taxpayers.��
“We are writing today to the Foreign Secretary to meet the family of Paramjeet Singh and explain to them what they are doing to explain the situation to the Portuguese Government. Explain to them face to face what the Foreign Office is doing in the way of diplomatic pressure…”
Sikhs nationally and internationally watch firmly on, as a case so close to the hearts of many appears to linger on further, with little intervention by the UK government.
Really everyword is so so true! Brilliant you say that why is not the Sikh Council asking for the dodgy dossier to be disclosed – why are they not ? I agree it should be disclosed and highlighted to the Sikhs and other minorities to show true colours of Modi and British colluding together………………………
Yet another British Government prepared to make totally unethical decisions based on a dodgy dossier � this time being supplied by Indian rather than British Intelligence Agencies. Yes, Modi I am looking at you flying into Wembley stadium like some demon king to be worshipped by your RSS slaves, dropping off your pernicious shopping list (of Sikhs, TV stations and Gurdwaras you want harassed to keep British Sikhs from helping their kin in Punjab) like a grinning monkey throwing its own excrement. In 1984 British Conservative PM Margaret Thatcher bent over backwards to suck up to the Indian Sarkar in order to flog the Indian taxpayer a defunct aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. She surreptitiously sent an elite forces SAS Major in January 1984 to help plan an armed attack on the Darbar Sahib (rejected by the Indian Army who had been had been practising mock assaults on a model Golden Temple in the hills in 1983) and would later ban British Sikhs from holding protest march in London at the Indian Sarkar�s behest. Thirty-plus years on another Conservative British PM Cameron refuses to condemn his predecessor�s duplicitous villainy (which is only brought to light because a Labour MP bothers to make use of the 30 year release of cabinet papers which reveal what was going on in Downing Street) and embarks on another begging-bowl trip to India to drum up business for trade deals (can�t just let the French sell all the fighter jets when Britain can get in on the act with their market leading �civil unrest and riot control gear� (as sold in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Israel and Libya) ). The patricians of the Conservative Party are direct descendants of the merchant princes of the East India Company (even go to the same schools � Cameron et al to the fields of Eton and private clubs) so have that same hypocritical mentality of grandstanding morality and respectability masking their true face of greed and exploitation. This makes it easy for them to ingratiatingly go to Gurdwaras at Vaisakhi and send typed letters of congratulations to British Sikhs on Guru Nanak�s birth anniversaries because they use such photo opportunities to fool some Sikhs into voting for them. This Foreign Secretary was going to come along to the biggest Gurdwara in the UK and make some promises about defending Bhai Pamma�s asylum rights (which would have been recorded and replayed if the British Government tried to back pedal later on) but had his reins pulled in by the Indian Ambassador at the Indian High Commission in Aldwych (a lot closer both physically and ideologically to Whitehall than the Singh Sabha way out in the suburbs of West London). So the Foreign Office thinking Sikhs are idiots puts out a spurious, ridiculous excuse as to why the Foreign Secretary has been spooked from making a moral stand � �he is a busy with some other business or he is going on a trip�. Yes he is busy on Indian Sarkari business and no doubt will be making a trip to India sometime soon to receive a saropa and contract for something to do with crowd control. He might even take in a show whilst he�s there � watching a military parade in his own honour (obviously no Sikh regiments), or be treated to a display of bhangra dance and singing (obviously no turbans as we cannot allow them to be associated with Punjabi folkdance), or perhaps be taken up to the Jallianwala Bagh where he can also like Cameron demur from offering any absolute apology for the gunning down of unarmed civilians (only fair as Badal is protecting his police who have shot dead two Sikhs and successive Central Governments (Congress and BJP) have offered no apology for the similarly state sanctioned massacre of Sikhs and they�ve killed tens of thousands compared to Dyer). British Sikhs need to demand that the Conservative British Government release all details of what Modi handed to them in his dodgy dossier smearing Sikhs recently so we adjudge if yet another Conservative British Prime Minister has emulated Thatcher and Chamberlain in appeasing a foreign despot intent upon brutalising, oppressing and ultimately annihilating citizens of their own country for simply being a religious minority. And the irony as I understand it isn�t Cameron trying to renegotiate with Europe to stop them from interfering in British domestic affairs? Doesn�t want the Euro but will take as many rupees as he can get a hold of it seems for India to meddle with british citizens rights so long as they are Sikh. At least France is open and upfront in its bigoted antipathy to those who wear a turban (and Sikhs fought and died for that country�s liberty and very survival just like it did for the UK).
What a surprise – it was only recently that the Home Secretary stated that they could not interfere with Bahi Parajamjit Singh’s extradition by the Indian Authorities. As SIKHS we understand what value this government has for the Sikh Taxpayers. Sikh Council now has a duty to confront this….