With Many Sikh-UK Issues To Address, An Official Apology For Jallianwala Bagh Would Be A Start
"Even with strong support from Sikh groups...Starmer's government has made many promises to the Sikh community that have yet to be kept."
Jasveer Singh
April 21, 2025 | 3.5 min. read | Opinion
When the UK Parliament resumes this Tuesday, April 22, after the annual Easter break, many Sikhs will be interested in hearing from the Prime Minister.
Sir Keir Starmer, Labour Party leader and UK PM since last July, is being urged to finally apologise on behalf of Britain for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919. And, with all that is pending regarding Sikhs and Starmer’s government, now would be a great time for that apology.
The call from the Sikh Federation UK follows the annual Vaisakhi Downing Street celebrations, which have become a staple of any PM’s calendar. While the event makes for great visuals of Sikh-UK Government relations, with many bright faces beaming while posing outside the iconic 10 Downing Street doors, it does very little to advance various Sikh issues and concerns in the UK.
This is the case now more than ever with Starmer’s Labour, which made the Downing Street Vaisakhi gathering distasteful to some.
Even with strong support from Sikh groups, showcased with the election of 11 Sikh Labour MPs in parliament last year, Starmer's government has made many promises to the Sikh community that have yet to be kept.
The Sikh Federation UK’s advocacy for the overdue apology on Jallianwala Bagh comes in addition to the push for Starmer to address a call for Labour to follow through on pre-election promises for an inquiry into UK support of India’s attack on Sri Harmandir Sahib in 1984, an event which is often noted as the first official act of India’s Sikh Genocide. This demand comes from over 400 Sikh organizations.
Starmer and his deputy, Angela Rayner, promised the inquiry before the elections, only to never mention it again, even when prompted.
Sikhs are also still waiting for them to act on the Jagtar Singh Johal situation. Outside of Johal’s new local MP, Labour’s Douglas McAllister, the rest of the party has been conspicuously silent about the Sikh political prisoner’s plight.
After the original charges were all finally dropped against Johal, and even more significantly after reports of renewed torture via solitary confinement, many were expecting to see a strong demand from Labour for the Scot’s freedom. Instead, we had more celebrations of UK-India trade relations.
The fact that Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy refuse to repeat previous statements on Johal being “arbitrarily” imprisoned only further underlines the weakness of this Labour Party in the face of India’s fascist regime and supporting global network.
If this was not enough, Labour was expected to have more fortitude in addressing the Dabinderjit Singh peerage situation after Starmer’s election, only for this situation to remain unaddressed, too.
Since 2020, respected community figure Dabinderjit Singh, who is also an advisor for the Sikh Federation UK and has 33 years of experience working for Britain in the National Audit Office, was expected to be nominated for a peerage, which would see him become a member of the House of Lords. After several delays, in 2022, it was revealed that pro-India figures allegedly made moves to prevent this from happening, due to Singh’s vocality on Sikh issues in India.
This takes us to the concern of India’s foreign interference in the UK.
The Washington Post was the most significant news outlet to release information, via intelligence officials, on the widely acknowledged foreign interference of India, targeting British Sikhs, in the UK. All other countries impacted by the issue of Indian foreign interference have now finally addressed it in some form. Australia “expelled spies”. Germany arrested Indian spies. The USA and Canada have assassins on trial. The world is waiting for action from the UK, and the ball is in Starmer’s court.
With so many Sikh issues to address, the notion of a Jallianwala Bagh apology, which occurred 50-plus years before any current MP was born, may seem trivial. Just as an inquiry into UK government involvement in the 1984 Sikh Genocide will not lessen the pain of the injustices of the time. However, these actions would symbolize a government finally willing to work with the community beyond the surface level and address longtime points of contention, creating more trust between Sikhs and the government. A trust that has been slowly eroding with situations like the West Midlands 3 and baseless “extremism” accusations.
As such, Sir Keir Starmer would be wise to address these Sikh issues immediately, and this can start – not end – with an apology for the Jallian Wala Bagh massacre this Tuesday in parliament.
Jasveer Singh hails from Southall, UK, and is the Senior Press Officer of The Sikh Press Association, a position he has held since 2015. In this role, Jasveer works across all sectors of media supporting Sikh organisations and individuals on Panthic endeavours. Jasveer previously worked as a freelance journalist which included stints with Sky News, Super Fight League, and more. You can find Jasveer on Twitter at @Jazzthejourno.
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