ALI SUKHANVER
For the Indian Prime Minister Modi, his ongoing visit to UK is not going to be a very pleasant one as reports say that this visit seems controversial among some elements of the Indian community. A spokesman of the Sikh Human Rights Group said talking to the media, “Modi wants to sell the idea of a ‘Digital India’, a ‘Clean India’ and a ‘developed and self-sufficient India.’ The reality is the unleashing of violence packed authoritarian agenda that seeks to undermine India’s democratic and secular fabric.” The leaders of the Sikh community in UK have sent a list of proposals to New Delhi regarding their demands. These proposals include abolishing ‘blacklists’ of Sikhs living abroad who cannot travel to India, release of prisoners held for political reasons, and a dialogue between the Indian government and Sikhs based abroad. Of all those who are planning to protest during Modi’s visit to UK, the Sikhs are the most active ones. A UK-based non-governmental Sikh organization Sikh Federation has created a twitter handle (Dal Khalsa-UK) and a Google page to mobilize people for protests.
“The intelligence agencies have alerted the British government that radical Sikh outfits are planning to hold massive protests during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United Kingdom between November 12 and 14,” says the Hindustan Times in a recent report. “Intelligence reports reveal that Khalistani groups in the UK are planning to hold protests at venues like Wembley Stadium where Modi is going to address the Indian diaspora. They have planned to protest at the Air Port, at the Hindu Temple, at 10 Downing Street, the Parliament Square, at the Indian High Commission and outside the hotel where PM Modi would stay,” says the paper.
It seems that the protestors would be already waiting for Modi wherever he moves in England. Mr. Modi is well aware of the intentions of the Sikh protesters during his visit and the intelligence reports are really painfully disturbing to him but at present he is very much helpless and is not in a position to avoid the protest plans. In such a situation he could do nothing but ask his British counterpart David Cameron to rein in activities of Sikh radicals in the United Kingdom. But for the British government it won’t be an easy job to put a check on the activities of the Sikh Community in England because the Sikhs are playing a very important role in progress and prosperity of the British society. And the British society is no doubt a society based on equality and justice. The British rulers know it very well that for the last many decades the Sikhs have been demanding for a separate homeland for them and the Hindu extremists are simply crushing their demand just because the Sikhs are in minority. Crushing minorities has become a part and parcel of the Indian culture. All minorities including the Muslims, the Sikhs, the Christians and the Hindus belonging to low-castes have to face a lot of humiliation at the hands of the Hindu extremists. Their houses are burnt, shops ransacked, their women are raped and their children are brutally slaughtered. The Hindu extremists are never willing to let them live peacefully and comfortably. In such a horrible situation, the British government is unwillingly doing something against the sublime English traditions by welcoming Modi, a person involved in murder of more than thousand innocent Muslims in Gujrat. But the democratic elements in UK are very much confident that Modi’s visit would end up in smoke.