ot a single protester tuned up at a Khalistani rally in support of farmers in India which had been advertised — by its organisers Sikhs for Justice — to be held in London on Thursday. Instead, the only people there were about 20 protesters from Jesuit Missions bemused to find the Indian high commission resembling a fortress. They were there on another protest — about “the unjust detention” of Father Stan Swamy, the 83-year-old Jesuit priest from Jharkhand jailed in Mumbai on what they say are “entirely false” charges.
The SFJ outfit, banned by India, had threatened to “shut down” the Indian high commission in London and consulate in Birmingham on UN Human Rights Day during an “Indian Embassy Bandh”, saying it was “emboldened by Canadian PM Justin Trudeau” and “UK MPs”.
The person leading the Jesuit protests, Paul Chitnis, told TOI: “He was harassed for a long time and then on October 8 he was taken into custody despite his age and having Parkinson’s disease. He has spent his entire life fighting on behalf of the poor and the adivasis. We demand the Indian government release Father Swamy from prison where he is at grave risk of catching Covid.”
The Indian high commission was surrounded by barricades and guarded by police all day. The flop of the Khalistani rally was in stark contrast to last weekend when thousands had turned up for a farmers’ rally.
Forty-nine Labour councillors, who represent areas with high proportions of the Punjabi community, have fired off a letter to UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab stating they “are very concerned by the Indian government’s reluctance to listen to their own citizens and their inadequate efforts to resolve the protest by peaceful negotiations with the farmers.”
Instead the “state-controlled media” has been trying to portray the protesting farmers as “separatists, this is simply not true”, the letter states. “Their voice is being suppressed using tear gas, water cannon and sticks. The situation is now fast approaching a tipping point as the Indian government has now deployed thousands of paramilitary troops around the protesting farmers, leading to fears that the use of force is imminent,” it says, urging Raab to “urgently intervene to avoid this undemocratic suppression of human rights by the Indian government, in particular if it resorts to the use of force against its own citizens.”
It also calls on him to “make representations to the ministry of foreign affairs” in India about the impact the new farm laws will have on British Sikhs and Punjabis.
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