Blast From The Past

Just when everyone thought the Khalistan matter was dead and gone, it is back, cleverly disguised as the Sikh Agenda produced by a group calling itself the Sikh Secretariat. This time, not only are British leaders listening, they're in a hurry to deliver what the Khalistanis want.

The disguise is simple but effective. The Secretariat is telling British leaders it wants Sikhs to be given the option to enter their ethnic origin in official data as Sikhs, not as Indians. By Home Office estimates, there are 3.5 to 5 lakh Sikhs in Britain, now recognised as a part of the 1.2 million Indians. One change in the census form could dent that Indian population figure significantly. And kick up a political storm in two countries.

The agenda for a separate identity in Britain overlaps with a separatist agenda for India. The seemingly innocuous demand British leaders are falling for is that the government find out how many Sikhs there are, that it can't do so unless they are listed separately. But items six and seven in the eight-point agenda make the real aim clear: lobby for and promote the reasons to establish an independent Sikh state—Khalistan.

These declarations would have been insignificant without the support of senior Conservative Party leaders. Their reason is obvious. The Sikh Secretariat has declared that they will vote for parties that deliver what they want. The Tories stand invited to look at votes from what the Secretariat advertises as a population of 7 lakh Sikhs.

At an annual convention of the Secretariat at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurudwara in Wolverhampton on September 22, shadow Tory minister for international development and women's issues Caroline Spelman said it was "extraordinary (British for outrageous) that the government has not cared to find out how many of you there are". The Labour government should monitor Sikhs separately and "if they fail, it will be a task for a Conservative administration to deliver on".

Labour can see the votes as well. Local Labour MP Rob Marris turned up at the Wolverhampton do to say there would be no need to wait for the 2011 census. There will be plenty of opportunities before then to list Sikhs separately, he said.

He then turned to the Khalistan demand: "Those in the Indian subcontinent who peacefully and democratically push for self-determination for that part of the Indian subcontinent, their opinion for self-determination, their right to ask for an independent Khalistan shouldn't be suppressed." Marris said it would not be right for parties in Britain to decide whether there should be self-determination in what he called that part of the Indian subcontinent. "But it would be right for people to democratically and peacefully express their opinions."

The comment elicited loud cries of "Khalistan zindabad". The gurudwara had become something of a Khalistan centre for the day. The walls of the langar hall were plastered with posters of Bhindranwale carrying a sten gun. There were posters of police atrocities, K.P.S. Gill torturing Sikhs, torture victims. Speaker after speaker praised "Sant Baba Jarnail Singh Ji Bhindranwale". The Secretariat had said 10,000 would attend the rally. Only a few hundred were around, but that was enough for the Khalistan leaders to make their point to the Tory and Labour leaders.

The Sikh Agenda, launched at this gurudwara on September 16 last year, has come a long way with strong Tory support. Spelman's speech followed strong support from shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin and shadow minister Dominic Grieve at a lobby day called by the Sikh Secretariat at Parliament on July 3. A group of Secretariat leaders then called on PM Tony Blair to present their demands. Later, the Liberal Democrats, the third force in UK politics, also expressed their support to the separate-listing demand.

"Just think what message this will give to them in Punjab," one of the many Khalistani speakers said: the message that if this goes ahead, the British don't think Sikhs are Indians. Behind the usual hot-headed speeches by the usual Khalistanis, this move is being directed by some brilliant leaders such as Kashmir Singh of the British Sikh Federation and Indarjit Singh, a retired civil servant. These gently-spoken men in lounge suits are making more headway than all those men with the sten guns.