Scottish Sikhs urge Dominic Raab to intervene in India protests

Sikh organisations and temples across the UK have called on foreign secretary Dominic Raab to intervene in the violent government clampdown on protesting farmers in India.

Security officers push back people shouting slogans during a protest held in support to farmers who have been on a months-long protest, in New Delhi, India. The Sikh Council UK has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to intervene.

The Sikh Council UK has expressed “grave concerns” about human rights violations. The organisation said the Indian government was in breach of United Nations resolutions on the right to protest, access to information and a free press.

Tens of thousands of Indian citizens have been protesting about three farming bills introduced last year, claiming the legislation leaves them “at the mercy of corporates” and price controls. The government has maintained the protests are based on misinformation.

However, the protests have escalated and the Indian government has ordered the police to attack the farmer unions using water cannons, batons, and tear gas, resulting in a death toll of more than 100.

The internet has also been shut down and farmers and journalists arrested.

Gurpreet Singh Johal, the Dumbarton-based administrative secretary of the Sikh Council, said the UK Government needed to do more than dismiss the protests as an “internal matter” for India.

“What is happening affects the diaspora deeply,” he said. “My father and his father were farmers before moving here and we all have family who are affected by this.”

Mr Johal added: “We need the UK Government to take action. We have already written to Dominic Raab because we could see what was going to end with lives lost, but we’ve written again because nothing has been done.”

The letter states that the groups “urge the foreign secretary to express our collective concerns on behalf of the British people to India's government and raise the matter at the United Nations”.

“Security services are indiscriminately detaining and charging protesting farmers and journalists with false charges of terrorism, sedition,” the letter states.

“The Indian Government is in breach of various UN resolutions and international laws regarding the right to protest, access to information and free press. The British Government has raised concerns around this right several times concerning the Chinese government's crackdowns on peaceful protests.

“As citizens and residents of Great Britain, we call on Dominic Raab, as our foreign secretary, to raise these matters urgently with the Indian government and his counterparts and urge the Indian authorities to act with restraint and resume peaceful dialogue with the farmer groups.

“As a government, which is committed to the rule of law and human rights, there is a positive obligation on the British government to continuously raise and monitor matters that concern the violation of fundamental human rights anywhere in the world.”

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “The Foreign Secretary discussed protests about agricultural reforms with his Indian counterpart during his visit to India in December, whilst making clear that the handling of protests is an internal matter for the Indian authorities.

“The right to gather lawfully and demonstrate a point of view is common to all democracies. Governments also have the power to enforce law and order if a protest crosses the line into illegality.”

Mr Johal admitted he was sceptical about any intervention from the Foreign Office, as he said Mr Raab has refused to meet his family to help free his brother, Jagtar Singh Johal, who has been in an Indian jail for three years without any conviction.

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