Which Political Party In The Uk Is More Sympathetic To Sikh Issues?

[DailyMail]

The Liberal Democrats. Plain and simple.

When Simon Hughes was the party president, he openly supported the Sikh's right to self-determination and pressed the Indian government to allow Amnesty International into Punjab to investigate human rights abuses by the Indian State. To this day, Simon Highes speaks at 1984 demonstration in Hyde Park. The speech he made last year is testamount to this fact. He openly stated he was due to visit India to speak at 'minister-level' to discuss human rights abuses inflicted upon the Sikhs by the State.

For many years, many took the view that although the Lib Dems were sympathetic to Sikh causes, they were unelectable and therefore it was all rather academic. Now they are part of a coalition government, they can wield some influence. I agree, not as much, but that's coalition politics for you.

I agree also that the conservatives are by and large more sympathetic to Sikh causes, but that is UK-specific Sikh causes (Churchill and the turban for example). The Conservatives are more muted when discussing India-specific Sikh causes.

The labour party has one or two individuals who are not only sympathetic to Sikh causes but have actually fought tooth and nail on behalf of the Sikhs. I still have a booklet produced by the Sikh Missionary Society on the Sikh turban case regarding helmet laws in 1977. The discussions that took place in both Houses of Parliament were fascinating, as were the names of the MP's who made elaborate speeches. Rev Dr Ian Paisley of the DUP spoke very eloquently.

[VanHelsingh]

theres a wolverhampton mp whos scottish, and has appeared on sikh channel many times,and has gone 2 panjab more times than i have!! he recently voiced his disgust over the whole rajoana/human rights case with sikhs in india, but he dusnt sadly have the appeal that galloway has.

wat do u guys think?

Do you know his name, Singh?

I think the issue with relying on Sikhs from a Panjabi background (but born and bred in the UK) to spearhead the Sikh cause is that, from what I've seen of ethnic minority MPs, they have to be docile and chamcha-like in their approach. They are always careful not to upset the white voter - because the country is majority white - and can't be seen to be prattling on about minority causes which contradict or oppose their party line.

Like I said before if such MPs really wish to progress in their political careers they cannot be seen to be a loose canon solely concerned for their own cause and people. If, like Galloway, such MPs don't really give a flying pooh about the wider electorate and their party elders then fair play to them. But I don't expect to see such maverick politicians from the ethnic minorities anytime soon.

On a separate note I suppose Sikhs only real hope is Gurdas Mann's son. I understand he attended Eton and then went onto Oxford or Cambridge (of course). Hopefully if his father has educated him about Sikh causes, hopefully Mann Jr. has managed to cultivate some useful relationships whilst at Eton with the future movers and shakers of the world, who might be willing to consult him or even listen to his views when the time comes. :biggrin2:

If he's pro-Hindustani and in the mould of the Bombay chattering class then we've had it, lol!

[RebelSingh]

Do you know his name, Singh?

always careful not to upset the white voter - because the country is majority white - and can't be seen to be prattling on about minority causes which contradict or oppose their party line.

On a separate note I suppose Sikhs only real hope is Gurdas Mann's son. I understand he attended Eton and then went onto Oxford or Cambridge (of course). Hopefully if his father has educated him about Sikh causes, hopefully Mann Jr. has managed to cultivate some useful relationships whilst at Eton with the future movers and shakers of the world, who might be willing to consult him or even listen to his views when the time comes. :biggrin2:

If he's pro-Hindustani and in the mould of the Bombay chattering class then we've had it, lol!

khalsa ji i believe his name is pat Mcfadden, i may be wrong, jus had a quick google, i think its him.

also regarding gurdas mann's son, hopefully if anything, he will be influenced more by british sikhs who r more likely 2 voice anti-india arguments and pro khalistan too. gurdas mann maybe a proud sikh and panjabi (listening 2 his songs/interviews), but at the same time , gurdas is a bum-licker of india, remember his sarbans dhaniya ve video? at the end of a guru gobind singh related video/song, he decides 2 put up an INDIA flag!!! what bowt the nishaan sahib mate? luckily the youtube uploder cleverly edited the video and put up a nishan sahib, LOL!

[West London Singh]

The Liberal Democrats. Plain and simple.

Well yeah, I agree.....it should, by rights be the Liberal Democrats. If you look at the very very clever political lobbying by our brethren and sistren in continental Europe, they've had great success by actively garnishing the public support of the European equivelent of the Liberals : The Greens.

But apart from that....I think we Sikhs need to take a gamble. If, 5 or 10 years ago, we all took the gamble and joined the Liberal Democratic Party, we would have been in a strong enough position to actually shape policy within. The gamble would have paid off because.....as nobody would have imagined....against all the odds....the Liberals ended up in Government as the minority party in a coalition. There is nothing to suggest that the next election will also not produce a hung parliament with, once again, the Liberals holding the key. The party itself is still small enough for us to join en masse and shape / dictate policy towards the Sikhs and India.

As for the other point discussed about our special relationship with the Army and the union jack ; Well, I don't wanna discuss it too much because it will detract from the main conversation, but I will say this : If it wasn't for my family's great bond with the army and the flag, I would be living (dying) in a cess-pit of a land called India, where I would either be one of the quarter million sikhs murdered for being a sikh or 'allowed' to live as a 3rd class citizen. Now....I appreciate that there are many of you fellow sikhs that either came here later or had no family service in the army but you all need to remember this : You are here simply because of those that did forge that close relationship with this country. Not just you, but also our Canadian and American brethren. The Sikhs that laid the foundation stone for your existence in England, Canada and America were proud British Army veterans. That service for the union jack was the thing that put them in the position to be able to create the Sikh diaspora.

He who doesn't know where he is coming from can't possibly know where he is going. I am extremely proud that my great grandfathers, from day one,.....never pledged alliegance to nor had any tie to....India. From day one, they willingly crushed the Indian mutiny and saw the Indian as the foreigner.

Never forget the people that laid the foundation to your existence today in London, Vancouver, California, Singapore, Kuala Lumpa and Hong Kong. Without them you'd be no better off than the farmer in uttar pradesh.

[RebelSingh]

I am extremely proud that my great grandfathers, from day one,.....never pledged alliegance to nor had any tie to....India. From day one, they willingly crushed the Indian mutiny and saw the Indian as the foreigner.

slightly off topic:

hey bro completely agree wit u, ive seen sooooooooooo many times sikhs seen as "traitors" by indians, for rejecting the chance 2 join in the mutiny. panjabi sikhs, panjabi muslims and pathans all refused 2 join in the mutiny, simply coz we were betrayed by these dirty dogra cow worshippers, and then expect us 2 side with em few yrs later, no chance.

[DailyMail]

WLS,

Absolutely. Whilst the backbone of the Sikh community continues to vote Labour, it is the Lib Dems who have spoken out at top-party political level against injustices faced by the Sikh community in India. More importantly, they have spoken out consistently both in opposition and in government over the last decade or so. I'm convinced many Sikhs are unaware of the Lib Dem stance on 1984.

The all-party parliamentary group for British Sikhs has a healthy mix of all three main political colours. However, since it is only 7 years since it's establishment, it is early days to claim what, if any actual successful outcomes have been attained. I will watch it closely, but I fear it is a talking shop of which there are many.

I was unaware that some Sikhs are not keen on talking about how they were recognised as an upright, elite martial race and posted to the four corners of the empire. Afterall, it were the British generals who court-martialled any Sikh who trimmed his beard, as taking amrit was a pre-requisite to joining the British military. Yes, we can argue the British expolited the Sikhs for their owns ends, to fight the western front and indeed the eastern front. However, by and large, the Sikh diaspora owes a large degree of it's very existence to the British military.

WLS, did you watch the recent "Empire" series by Paxman? He didn't mention that SIkhs refused to take part in the Indian mutiny. I was disappointed.

[dalsingh101]

also i reckon minority bum-lickers like george galloway (who is THE definition of a bum-licker by the way) are the types of person who can make a/if any difference for minorities. This is a man who has dun everything from learnin bangali/islamic phrases to try and get votes in tower hamlets (E.London) with a pathetic party (green party), and actually won elections in bethnal green. He has also recenty now won the elections in bradford west (muslim majority AGAIN), ironically he defeated marsha singh!

these r the types of ppl we need, he has voiced his anger at wars on 'terror', as war on 'islam' etc, and predictably, he has won over the sullahs. after 7/7 bombings he condemned the london bombers, but said this was expected and muslims r the real victims over the world etc. open comments like that, wud please any muslim tbh.

theres a wolverhampton mp whos scottish, and has appeared on sikh channel many times,and has gone 2 panjab more times than i have!! he recently voiced his disgust over the whole rajoana/human rights case with sikhs in india, but he dusnt sadly have the appeal that galloway has.

wat do u guys think?

Brother, although you seem to struggle with the English language, I think what you have said above is very perceptive.

One simple thing that I think would REALLY help us is to drastically grow numerically (with an eye on quality too, but not in an obsessive, unrealistic way), in todays world there is the power of nuisance (i.e. like people demonstrated in the recent riots in England or as Muslims demonstrate in response to their own issues) and there is the power of numbers. This is what can cause change and forces people to listen.

As Sikhs we sadly seem to have this kind of power in the diaspora. I get the feeling that we are perceived as relatively docile, satisfied people, who can be wheeled out to defend multiculturalism, when the tutti hits the fan about people start moaning about it in England.Other than that, our own political needs are generally just plain ignored. So no counting us as separate in national consensus, deliberate ignoring of issues of abuse in Panjab go on, whilst these people pretend to be our best buddies.

What is most remarkable is how our own lot can be so unbelievably naive about how we get mugged off like that??

[RebelSingh]

Brother, although you seem to struggle with the English language, I think what you have said above is very perceptive.

thanks, but also its called SLANG , for god's sake, im using txt speak/type, whilst making it at the same time readable 2 old granddads like u.

u think my english is bad? try whiskin thru this forum, there r a lot worse than i (try "@innergear")!

[Angrez]

..................

theres a wolverhampton mp whos scottish, and has appeared on sikh channel many times,and has gone 2 panjab more times than i have!! he recently voiced his disgust over the whole rajoana/human rights case with sikhs in india, but he dusnt sadly have the appeal that galloway has.

wat do u guys think?

The Wolverhampton MP was Rob Marris he did more for the Sikhs than any of of the apnay MP's. He was part of the parliamentary group and in 2009 they had a private viewing of the film "Widows Colony" in the House of Commons. It was attended by MP's, directors of the film and Manoj Mitta who co-authored Phoolka's book and in fact Manoj Mitta is the one who exposed the hand of Kamal Nath in the Delhi massacres. It was a result of this viewing that Rob Marris wrote to the foreign ministry and got murderer Jagdish Tytler's visa revoked for entry to the UK. To this day he is still getting emails from Tytler questioning what personal grudge he has against him.

Unfortunately, our gifted gurdwara pardhans from Wolverhampton refused to support him in the elections and decided to throw their weight to Tory Mr Paul Uppal. Who coincidentally is the son of the owner of Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara and is a close friend of the committe of the other biggest gurdwara in Wolverhampton.

This is our main problem, we are very shortsighted and elect those people who will help us on our small domestic issues and not those people who will help us on the panthic issues.

There were many instances when all you had to do was email Rob Marris about a sikh issue and he would get a letter drafted and sent to the relevant office whether it was the UK government or the Indian government. It was a big loss to the Sikhs when he was not re-elected. There was a lot he could and would have done.

Well done to our great panthic leaders and jathebandian in Wolverhampton. You have so much foresight. Can anyone please tell me which specific Sikh issues Paul Uppal has fought and whether he will raise his voice on the sikh injustices in India.

[RebelSingh]

The Wolverhampton MP was Rob Marris he did more for the Sikhs than any of of the apnay MP's. He was part of the parliamentary group and in 2009 they had a private viewing of the film "Widows Colony" in the House of Commons. It was attended by MP's, directors of the film and Manoj Mitta who co-authored Phoolka's book and in fact Manoj Mitta is the one who exposed the hand of Kamal Nath in the Delhi massacres. It was a result of this viewing that Rob Marris wrote to the foreign ministry and got murderer Jagdish Tytler's visa revoked for entry to the UK. To this day he is still getting emails from Tytler questioning what personal grudge he has against him.

Unfortunately, our gifted gurdwara pardhans from Wolverhampton refused to support him in the elections and decided to throw their weight to Tory Mr Paul Uppal. Who coincidentally is the son of the owner of Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara and is a close friend of the committe of the other biggest gurdwara in Wolverhampton.

This is our main problem, we are very shortsighted and elect those people who will help us on our small domestic issues and not those people who will help us on the panthic issues.

thats gud, never heard of Rob Marris, seems like a trick our idiotic ppl missed, also regarding the MP i was talking about, its definitely Pat McFadden, he was on sikh channel few weeks ago too. Wat Rob Marris did regarding Jagdish Tytler was comendable, to say the least. But sayin that i dont mind if our enemies come 2 england on holiday from india, its a PERFECT opportunity for an assasination!