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Agencies

UK stops Khalistan supporter nomination to House of Lords, avoids major diplomatic row with India
24-December-2020

The United Kingdom saved itself from a potentially major diplomatic row with India after it took a Khalistani supporter off the list of House of Lords members in the last minute. Dabinderjit Singh Sidhu, who is a principal adviser to the Sikh Federation UK, was proposed as one of the nominees by the Labour party for peerage for life to the House of Lords Appointments Commission, but when the list of �Political Peerages� was released by Downing Street, his name was missing, The Hindustan Times reported.

The Labour party had been, for some time, mulling over nominating Dabinderjit Singh Sidhu to the House of Lords. This even though Sidhu was actively associated with the International Sikh Youth Federation, which was banned in the UK till 2019 when then Home Secretary Theresa May un-proscribed it, and its offshoot Sikh Federation UK.

The International Sikh Youth Federation is still banned in India.

Sidhu, who works with the UK National Audit Office (equivalent to Comptroller and Auditor General in India), has been openly advocating for a separate Sikh state. He also received the Order of the British Empire for his work at the NAO.

The Hindustan Times report cited a senior official as saying that Labour party leader Keir Starmer had not taken Sidhu off the list at the last minute, the appointment could have damaged UK's bilateral relations with India, soured the visit of Prime Minister Johnson and also thrown cold water over the new Labour leadership's desire to make amends with the Indian community.

�It would have undermined the foundations of India-UK cooperation, especially on its commitment to not allow its soil to be used against India and its integrity, and shaken the framework of cooperation on the matters of terrorism, which includes not legitimising the political faces of terrorism directed against each other,� another official was quoted as saying in the reporta.