The new extremism definition has been unveiled in Parliament, on the Sikh New Year, will formalise the engagement ban that leading Sikh organisations that are critical of the Indian government have already experienced.  

Sikh organisations that have previously never received government funding, but led engagement with government officials have been unofficially blocked by the Tories from meeting officials and Ministers for the last 5 years at the request of the Indian government.    

The Sikh Federation (UK) is the leading grassroots organisation that has been politically active for over two decades and often quoted by the mainstream media.  We have been one of the Sikh organisations who has been critical of Indian government actions and faced the unofficial ban.  

Dabinderjit Singh, the Principal Adviser of the Sikh Federation (UK) said: “We often raise difficult questions on a wide range of issue where officials and Ministers have often struggled to respond. This announcement may formalise the ban that already exists, but it will not be able to stop our local and national political lobbying that is a cornerstone of our democracy.

This policy of appeasement of the Indian government has seen the UK government shift in the last 5 years to only deal with individuals and organisations that are pro-India who have also been backed with government funding.

This discriminatory policy means the UK Government is totally out of touch with the needs of the Sikh community and it often relies on MPs keeping them honest.” 

He added: “This approach is a sad indictment of democratic freedoms in Britain and results in poor Sikh community engagement and government policies and practices that will often be criticised and opposed.  This strategy unnecessarily wastes community and government resources.”

We await the publication of a list of organisations in the coming weeks that will be impacted and will oppose the inclusion of any Sikh organisations for reasons of political correctness and to appease the right wing Indian government.

We fully expect the opposition parties to oppose the Tories discriminatory strategy as regards classifying any Sikh community organisations as extremist. Politicians when they engage with the Sikh community in General Election year to get our votes will be in for a shock.”