DSGMC raises issues of ‘blacklisted’ Sikhs with Indian envoy in the US
Wednesday, 03/06/2015
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NEW YORK: A New Delhi-based Sikh group has taken up with the Indian envoy in the US concerns of the Sikh diaspora, including the inability of several of them to visit India after they sought political asylum in the US, Canada and other countries during the turbulent years of the 1980s.
Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Manjit Singh GK led a delegation to Washington on Monday and met India’s Ambassador to the US Arun Kumar Singh. In a letter presented to the Indian envoy, Singh raised concerns of the Sikh diaspora settled in the US and those who are “covered in the black list” of India’s ministry of home affairs. The letter added that a large number of Sikh families had been denied visa to visit India “without being given a valid reason”. Singh told PTI that he was assured by the ambassador the matter would be taken up with authorities concerned.
CANADA AND OTHER COUNTRIES, SEEKING POLITICAL ASYLUM
The letter said many of the asylum-seekers were booked in cases in India and had not been allowed to visit their homeland in the past 30 years “as their names figure in the black list” in the ministry of home affairs.
The top DSGMC official sought the Indian ambassador’s intervention to resolve the issue at the earliest and to ensure that Sikhs were able to visit India.
“Your initiative would pave a way for the Sikh diaspora to fulfil their wish, which doesn’t seem impossible. It is requested that the passports of all these families be renewed and they be given visas to visit India,” Singh said, adding that the issues needed to be resolved soon.
