Latest UK Cabinet papers reveal how Margaret Thatcher sucked up to a genocide enabler There’s nothing new in the recently released Cabinet papers covering 1985-1986 from the National Archive in Kew that we don’t already know. Reading the various papers, you would get the impression that Sikhs in Britain were a bunch of religious extremists who wanted nothing less than the violent overthrew of the Indian state by all means and establishment of a separate Sikh state. I’m not kidding. It’s all there in black and white. These Cabinet meetings took place just a few months after the minority Sikh community in India had suffered one of its worst genocides in living memory, an event that was recently referred to as ‘genocide’ by the current Indian Home Minister, Rajnath Singh. After decades of denial and silences, the veil is finally being lifted. And what was Maggie’s answer to the plight of the hunted innocents? Throughout this period, from the word go, collusion with the very perpetrators of the November 1984 pogroms, the government of India led by Rajiv Gandhi. Both parties ensured the ‘Sikh issue’ was firmly locked within the box marked ‘extremism’ in order to divert away from the reality of the horror of genocide, all for the sake of trade. Lo and behold, we invite this ‘enabler’ of mass murder to this green and pleasant land just a few months later. So please, put aside those stories your fathers may have told you about the Sikh sacrifices in the two World Wars as that narrative doesn’t quite fit in the geo-political landscape of the 1980s, and let’s delve into the papers in question. It’s Valentines day 1985 and the cabinet meet to note down the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ ‘irritation over the activities of Sikh extremists.’ Soon, alarm bells start ringing at a meeting held at 10 Downing Street to discuss the ‘Sikh demonstration in Hyde Park’ organised by the ‘Republic of Khalistan’, set for 8 April. Now, correct me if I’m wrong. We still have the freedom of assembly in this country, right? London has been the host to many rallies calling for an independent Palestine, Kurdistan or Tamil Eelam and never, to my knowledge, have such democratic rights been curtailed at the behest of a foreign government. Many Sikhs opposed Khalistan as did support it and I would suspect most just wanted to voice their concerns over what was going on in India. I, for one, as do many others, saw no reason why Sikh aspirations couldn’t have been met within a federal structure of India and see the issue of a separate state a reaction against decades of brutality meted out against Sikhs not only in 1984 but for a whole decade afterwards. Many will disagree with me but then, it is their right, as long as they conduct themselves peacefully. But no foreign government have a right to stick their noses in and demand bans. ‘The Indian Government would not readily understand an apparent failure by the British Government to contain the activities of such extremists to their sedition purposes and the risk of damage to Anglo-Indian relations was very considerable.’ But what was our government’s response? ‘It was the clear view of the Cabinet that it would be in the public interest that the rally should not take place.’ Come the 25 April 1985 Cabinet meeting and the mask slips off with discussions about the sale of the Westland Helicopters to India, which points to the very reason why, in the end, the Thatcher government was so obsessed with appeasing New Delhi. More shocking, the 6 June 1985 Cabinet meeting leads with the topic of ‘Sikh violence’, referring to the peaceful protest outside the Indian High Commission in London on the 1st anniversary of the attack on the Harmandar Sahib or Golden Temple. Beside one arrest for burning an Indian flag, no other incident, or any violence took place. We now have the British government working hand-in-hand with the Indians in creating the image of the violent ‘other’. Maggie had already had experience already on how to deal with the ‘enemy within’ the previous year. There’s even a meeting on 25 July 1985 to discuss, wait for it, the Sikh Sports Tournament due to take place in West Bromwich of all places, now dubbed the citadel of subversion. These were no Olympics, just a bunch of Punjabi ‘freshies’ in nothing but their underpants shouting ‘kabaddi’ till they ran out of breath. I dare say no threat to the Indian state but the organisers did make the mistake of naming the games in honour of former Indian PM, Indira Gandhi’s assassins and hoped the Indians wouldn’t notice. A shocked Margaret hurriedly sent her advisors off to Brummie to exert ‘heavy pressure’ on the organisers to retract the names. It’s a good job they haven’t come across Slough yet. So now that British Sikhs had been labelled ‘extremists’ ‘Khalistanis’ and now honouring Mrs Gandhi’s assassins, and it seemed no credible and affective leadership from the Sikh community coming forward, the scene was set for the visit of Rajiv Gandhi to the UK in October 1985. So, you may ask, what’s wrong with that? Wasn’t Rajiv Gandhi’s mother assassinated by her own Sikh bodyguards? Yes So wasn’t the violence that followed inevitable? No. The 24 hours following the assassination saw little violence or death. The pogrom took a night and morning to orchestrate and it was cousin Arun Nehru MP who came to the rescue as maestro and supreme-conductor of the carnage to come, when the killing was to begin, in what manner innocent Sikhs would be killed and what the police’s role would be. Rajiv role was to ensure his cousin’s project had enough time to bear fruit by keeping the army confined in their barracks for a whole three days and when they were eventually dispatched, they were given no orders. 8,000 burnt Sikhs and gang-raped women later, he justified the violence in his infamous ‘When a mighty tree falls, it’s only natural the earth around it does shake a little’ speech. Following the killings, he was quick to promote the perpetrators of the violence to high office for their efficiency, including the new Information Minister, HKL Bhagat, in whose constituency whole Sikh neighbourhoods disappeared overnight. For me and others this is the crux of the Cabinet papers. The current Coalition may have sidestepped the issue by stating there was no UK involvement in the June 1984 Amritsar attack, but they will find it hard to avoid questions relating to post-November 1984, their appeasement to a genocide ‘enabler’, the absence of any condemnation of his actions and a lack of any compassion for the November victims. The final act - 12 September 1985 The Cabinet meets to ensure everything is done in their power to ensure Rajiv Gandhi’s visit takes place without incident. ‘There are major British contracts in India. It is highly desirable that the visit is a success.’ Postcript “The first time it was reported that our friends were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread. When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out “stop!” When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.” - Bertolt Brecht 8t4files.wordpress/2014/12/31/latest-uk-cabinet-papers-reveal-how-margaret-thatcher-sucked-up-to-a-genocide-enabler/
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 21:15:51 +0000
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