to a friend, opinion maker & / or newspapers in your area

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Indian news weekly Outlook chastised

by Hinduvta bigots for providing a forum for the Sikh Agenda

BY

Dr. Amarjit Singh

Khalistan Affairs Centre

956-National Press Building, Washington DC 20045 USA

Tel: 202-637-9210 :: Fax: 202-637-9211

kacwashdc@yahoo.com

One of the first posting on the Outlook website - interestingly dated October 01, 2002 - was from one, Arundhati Roy, which set the pace of the vitriolic postings thereafter. It states, "I never understood why they would want a seperate landlocked state. DO they want to be dependent on Pakistan? What's the point? I think it is more of British agenda and it is completely anti-sikh. In cold war times this was used against India." We hope this is not the socalled outspoken 'liberal' Arundhati Roy we think it is!

In one of the last postings (about seventy posts in all) on October 21, 2002, on the OUTLOOK website, headlined "In sickness and health", Sirdar Bikramjit Singh from London put 'Paid' on the Indian dezinformatsiya exercise when he wrote eloquently that:"The article Blast From the Past (October 7) just goes to show how subservient the so-called free media is in India. When non-Indian media like the BBC could say there were over 10,000 Sikhs at the conference, how could you claim there were only "a few hundred"? Nothing irks the Indian establishment more than a people demanding their rights from India. I am particularly disappointed by the comments of Arundhati Roy, which show how morally bankrupt and misinformed Indian intellectuals are. The Sikhs in the UK have every right to demand that their views be heard by the UK government. They have more freedom of _expression in the West than they have in a hypocritic nation like India."

Another posting by RAGHBIR SINGH from SLOUGH UK says, "Many of the posts below have confused (perhaps deliberately) the right of Sikhs to be identified as Sikhs. Let's be clear about what this means - we are not referring to nationality (for most Sikhs in the UK are British citizens) or religion. This is about ethnicity, which is evidently a different metric altogether. Note that Sikhs are already recognised as a distinct ethnic group according to UK law. Hence, this part of the Sikh Agenda is about implementing this as part of ethnic monitoring. Why is ethnicity important for Sikhs? After Sep 11, many Sikhs around the world were unjustly victimised. While police departments kept records on such incidents, they had no way of reporting how many attacks there were on Sikhs since they are typically categorised as Indian. Hence there is no way to positively deal with such situations. That's just one example - there are countless others (employment, census information, education, etc.). This and other issues in the Sikh Agenda affect the lives of Sikhs living in the UK. It is the right of the citizens of a democratic country to peacefully lobby for such rights. I am frankly disgusted to read so many posts on this forum (particularly from Indians living in India it would seem) that labels UK Sikhs who are working hard for the rights of Sikhs in the UK as 'Khalistanis', 'fanatics', 'terrorists' etc. This is a tactic that has been used over the past few decades by Indian politicians and the overtly sympathetic Indian media. For a change, let's hear some reasoned arguments as to why Sikhs do not deserve such rights as espoused by the Sikh Agenda."

A posting by Sirdar Jagtiar Singh, from London UK, on the Outlook magazine site gives a time-line to the comprehensive eight-point Sikh Agenda for the UK Government which was launched at Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, Sedgely Street, Wolverhampton, UK, and reflected a diverse range of aims and objectives for the 700, 000 strong Sikh community in the UK. "The Sikh Agenda" writes Jagtiar Singh, "was finalised after a three-month consultation period that began after the General Election. The end product was an agenda that represented the aspirations of the disparate parts of the UK Sikh community that could be progressed jointly over the next five years with the UK Government, the Opposition and individual Members of Parliament."

Sirdar Jagtiar Singh goes on to say that, "The beauty of the Sikh Agenda concept is that it recognises that all Gurdwaras and Sikh organisations should be able to relate to, support and take forward one or more items within the agenda. At the same time no Gurdwara or Sikh organisation is being asked to compromise its independence or aims and objectives by being required to sign up to the Sikh Agenda approach in full. A similar logic applies to individual MPs who are able to support and take forward specific items in the agenda without having to back every single item."

Jagtiar Singh's posting goes on to say that, " The Sikh Agenda has provided the UK Government with a clear understanding of the broad range of needs of the Sikh community in the UK and what is required to ensure Sikhs are able to play a more effective role in our diverse multicultural society. The agenda also recognises that both, British Sikhs and the UK Government, have an active role to play in promoting British-Sikh relations in the UK and globally. As envisaged, the eight-point Sikh Agenda has gone through its first annual revision process to reflect developments during the last year. Once again, there has been wide-ranging consultation within the Sikh community in the last two months. Why have a Sikh Agenda? The Sikh community's approach to the UK Government needed to be more effectively organised and co-ordinated so as to be better able to present issues of concern to the Sikh community and to promote relations between the Sikh community and the government. Although a considerable amount of good work is and was being carried out by numerous Sikh organisations throughout the UK, a co-ordinated and professional approach was lacking. A comprehensive and coherent Sikh Agenda provides a framework for co-ordination and co-operation and improves transparency and accountability. The Sikh Agenda, with the help of the Sikh Secretariat administrative concept, enables the community to monitor progress by the UK Government and its agencies and to assess its ability to meet the needs of its Sikh citizens. It also makes Sikh organisations and their representatives more accountable for their actions as regards progress against the Sikh Agenda. The Sikh Agenda and Sikh Secretariat concepts, along with complementary initiatives, such as a series of Sikh Lobby Days at Westminster, the Sikh Agenda e-group and the development of an open and all-inclusive UK-wide forum for consulting and providing feedback are also providing a more effective framework for timely consultations with those that represent the grassroots of the Sikh community. Implementation of the Sikh Agenda and related initiatives is allowing the 700,000 strong British Sikh community to play a more effective part in British society as an important ethnic minority in the UK. The Sikh community, due to its numbers and commitment to strong religious and cultural values has shown that it also has the potential to constitute one of the most influential lobby groups in the UK, provided there is proper co-ordination and involvement of both Sikh professionals and organisations truly representing the grassroots." End quote.

We believe our BritishSikh brothers and sisters in the United Kingdom deserve a salute for their yeoman service to the Sikh cause. They all should rest assured that they have the support and good wishes of the million strong Sikh community of North America. One lesson is very clear from the above OUTLOOK episode that the 3 million strong prosperous diaspora Sikhs have failed to loosen the stanglehold of the India's Brahmin caste dominated ruling elite on the venal Indian media in this information age. We Sikh, ALL OF US, must think and do something about that and give top priority to break this evil stranglehold of the government on the venal Indian media.

KHALISTAN ZINDABAD - Long Live Khalistan

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