How did the Sikh Lobby go ?
Gurmukh Singh
Just a flavour report :In the Sikh tradition of gross exaggeration, I would be tempted to say that it was a full house and “hundreds” of UK Sikh “representatives” attended as well as dozens of MPs from the main UK parties.
However, I would say there were at least one hundred Sikhs (I expected about 50 at the most!), many representing organisations, and more importantly age groups. I was particularly delighted to see a few prominent ladies and youngish Sikh women who took part in the discussion.
It was a matter of great satisfaction to see youngish smart Gursikhs like Det Chief Inspector Pal Binder Singh, Secretary of Police Sikh Association and Cllr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi amongst many others.
About 20 MPs and junior ministers showed their faces by rotation while senior Labour backbencher, Rob Marris MP Wolverhampton, chaired.
And yes, Davindra Sharma, Southall MP did attend and offered full support for the monitoring of Sikhs as a group to secure a level playing field and better understanding of Sikh identity. Sad to say that the late Piara Khabra MP for Southall would not have given such an undertaking. (Beginning to revise my opinion of Virenra Sharma and may even take up his offer of “let us meet later” as he walked past after his short contribution).
The ex-Southall “boy”, MP Parmjit Dhanda, now a junior minister, gave the most disappointing performance seeing that he is a Sikh (minus identity) and would have understood that any Sikh differences regarding monitoring relate mainly to classification (the religion v ”ethnicity” debate), and not to the actual need for addressing equal opportunities, delivery of services, security etc issues vis a vis the Sikhs.
His shoddy performance was followed closely by Fiona McTaggart MP for Slough, who made some unhelpful suggestion like local (boroughs/counties) upwards approach for Sikh monitoring.
Experience based advice & prediction: Sikh interests would be best served by non-Sikh MPs in Sikh populated areas, and the first sabat surat Sikh MP is more likely to be elected from a largely non-Sikh constituency.
In their desperation, BBC Asianet got hold of me yesterday morning (because no one else was available) and I fielded a one hour live programme by Sonia Deol from 9.00 to 10.00 am before going to the Lobby yesterday (1 July). Many Muslim listeners called, supporting the Sikh case to be monitored in their own right.
(Sonia could have stuck more to the two issues on the Lobby agenda rather than keeping on about Sikh kirpan, on the same day that there was a huge demonstration in London against the carrying of knives.)
Lobby day achievement regarding Sikh monitoring : Reconfirmation of Sikh cross section support, especially from the young professional Sikhs who understand what is at stake through own field experience. Most encouraging.
From MPs: More of the same. They would support next steps now under discussion.
An uphill struggle thanks mostly to some of our own, and misunderstanding elsewhere that this is some sort of “separatist” agenda. As Indian MP, S. Tarlochan Singh well briefed about such issues, would confirm, IT IS NOT.
Gurmukh Singh (UK)
sewauk2005@yahoo.co.uk
WaheGuru Ji Ka Khalsa, WaheGuru Ji Ke Fateh
From Kashmir Singh, BSF
I Agree with Sardar Gurmukh Singh’s email below, about the disappointing performance of Parmjit Singh Dhanda MP. He has given fine words before, but failed to deliver anything useful for British Sikhs.
On Sikh ethnic group monitoring, he was not aware that Petitions had previously been handed into the CRE and the Prime Minister, signed by so many different Sikh organisations, and meetings had been attended with Home Office Ministers which included many different British Sikh organisations invited by the Government to attend the meeting. The other political parties, and so many other Labour party MPs had understood the need, but Parmjit appeared not to do so.
The Government had also dragged its feet in producing a common Code of Practice on Sikhs to be used across all Government Departments, so that racial discrimination did not continue against the British Sikh Community.
The present Government and Labour party is way behind in public opinion polls, suffering heavily in recent Local Authority Councils elections throughout the country, and previously safe MP seat By-elections. The forthcoming General Election will probably see many Labour party MPs swept out of office.
Kashmir Singh, General Secretary, British Sikh Federation, british_sikh_fed@btopenworld.com
