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

[VanHelsingh]

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.

That's an absolute disgrace! So what exactly are these pradhaans doing for Sikhi apart from taking their cut from the profits?

Angrez, I've been out of the loop for a fair number of years so I'm just wondering how and where you get this kind of information about MPs and the causes they represent. I do read the newspapers but I've never come across specifics as what you've just described above regarding the MP from Wolverhampton.

BTW I'm asking for my own benefit so I can arm myself with information. I'm not casting aspersions on the info you've presented.

[Angrez]

I have met Rob Marris several times when he was my MP I was also closely involved with the sikhs who arranged for the UK viewing of the Widows Colony.

As to the mindset of our local panthic leaders thats my own judgement having lived in Wolverhampton for 50yrs and knowing how far sighted they are in their thinking.

[ksb80]

This is actually a very good question. I'm surprised the thread has seen little participation and activity. All things considered, I will say the Conservative Party is more sympathetic to the Sikh cause than the Labour Party.

Its a difficult question to answer. Depends on the individual MP. The general rule is that if the local MP is a Labour man or woman who is one of these things : Musilim or very left wing or black...he or she will be willing to listen to Sikh concerns and will be willing to speak up for the Sikhs. However, as evidenced by what the Labour Party has done in the last 5 years in the 2 neighbouring west london constituencies of Hounslow and Southall, which, added together, provide the largest numerical number of Sikhs in the entire country. In both these constituencies, after the death of the sitting MP, the Labour Party have shown their total, 100% unwillingless to select a Sikh MP to stand in what are largely Sikh constituencies. In both constituencies, even though the longest serving councillors and largest number of official candidates were Sikhs, the Labour Party decided to by-pass traditional routes of selection and impose a Hindu Punjabi candidate on the elecorate. It goes without saying that the Sikh electorate in London thus get more aympathy for Sikh issues from their BNP councillor than they do from their 2 Hindu MP's. Our only saving grace in London is down to continous pure luck when it comes to the Mayor, i.e Ken being a left wing renegade whose conscience cannot be whipped by the whips at Westminster and Boris Johnson through the fact that Sikhism runs in the family via his wife's side.

The Conservative Party, on the other hand, and its MP's, are very aware and very supportive of the statistics in this country that show the Sikhs as the nation's most patriotic people, the Sikh stats of home ownership and hard work, and the Sikh links to the British Army. In fact...our proud British Army link is not only our biggest weapon when garnishing support. However, there are among our community, large sections of the youth that are very vocal about rubbishing those links and rubbishing the special bond with the British. These Sikhs (who I would say are now the majority among the youngsters) are basically killing and destroying the one thing that gets us support among the masses.

One of our greatest weapons, when looking for support, is of course Sir Winston Churchill's passionate speech about the respect the nation owes to the Sikhs. The man is a hero of all Conservatives and invoking his name and message is always handy when looking for support from an MP.

So, in conclusion then, I would say at the moment it is the Conservatives who are more our friend. However, if young Sikhs carry on with this suicide policy of rubbishing the proud links with the Army and the union jack, we will soon be left with no friend and supporter at all.

Agree with west landan singh.

Labour traditionally had the Sikh vote. Did very little other than attend Gurdwarae for votes, whilst our elders skipped around them with their broken english. Tories have not made an obvious attempt to get the general Sikh vote. However, they have listened to the Sikh voice and nowadays more receptive to Sikh issues.

Blair/ Brown where publically pro-muslim -Sikhs hardly got any airtime with them !