Thatcher chastised BBC for Chohan’s anti-Indira remarks

Friday, 17/07/2015

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LONDON: Within hours of Indira Gandhi’s assassination on October 31, 1984, former prime minister Margaret Thatcher chastised the BBC for providing a platform to Sikh extremists in Britain, amid fears that the coverage could lead to India cancelling the existing defence contracts.

Documents declassified and released by National Archives on Thursday indicate the scale of consternation in British official circles over the ennui caused in India by the late pro-Khalistan leader Jagjit Singh Chohan’s remarks on the BBC before Gandhi’s assassination.

The documents related to the assassination and preparations for Thatcher’s visit to New Delhi for the cremation number over 180 pages, including profiles of leading figures in the then Indian government and assessments of India’s internal situation.

Thatcher wrote to BBC chairman Stuart Young on November 2, 1984, “The Home Office has already had occasion to draw your attention to the government’s concern about the platform which the BBC has provided for a very small minority of Sikh extremists in this country.”

“We now have specific advice from our High Commissioner that this is not only damaging our relations with India, but endangering the security of British citizens in India, and more specifically increasing the threat to Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and others going to Delhi for Mrs Gandhi’s funeral.”

Thatcher added, “I do not question the BBC’s editorial independence, but I would be failing in my duty if I did not remind you of the responsibility that goes with that independence.”

Young replied the same day that Chohan had been banned from appearing on the BBC. Faced with violence in Northern Ireland, Thatcher later coined the famous phrase of the need to deny terrorists the “oxygen of publicity on which they depend”. After Rajiv Gandhi took over as prime minister after the assassination, the then British high commissioner to India, Robert Wade-Grey, reported the growing anger in New Delhi over Chohan’s remarks, and called for immediate diplomatic and political action.

He wrote to London, “I have learnt on good authority that feeling in very senior Indian government circles (including the new Prime Minister) is running very high against Britain in light of the reports of Chohan’s appearances on the BBC and of Sikh rejoicing in London. There is even talk of a trade boycott, including the cancellation of existing defence contracts.”

He said, “If we are to protect our interests, and also minimise the security risk of Princess Anne and Mrs Thatcher during their time here, we need to move very fast with a public statement at the highest-possible level.”

“This should express the government’s regret at Chohan’s appearance and statement on television and their abhorrence at any section of the British population rejoicing at an act of terrorism and murder.”

According to a transcript of a press conference in New Delhi on November 3, 1984, Thatcher said she was “shocked” at the comments made by Chohan, but prosecuting him was a matter for the police and director of prosecutions, who had decided that they could not prosecute him.

During her visit to New Delhi, Thatcher repeated several times that the vast majority of Sikhs, Hindus and others in Britain were grieved over the assassination and reports of “rejoicing” in Southall involved a minority of Sikhs.