With India Trade Deal Starmer Takes Free Trade Over Freedom From Foreign Interference

"Starmer is doing just what his Conservative predecessors did; putting trade deals with India above Sikh lives."

Jasveer Singh

May 23, 2025 | 3.5 min. read | Opinion

Amid a 2023 global assassination campaign targeting Khalistan figures in the diaspora, UK activist Avtar Singh Khanda was one of three shocking and sudden deaths.

In the USA and Canada, that murder spree led to arrests and trials of Indian nationalists operating within the Indian Intelligence-Organized Crime nexus.

In the UK, however, no action was taken.

This month, after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced an UK-India trade deal, we now likely know why no action has been taken against India.

It should not go unnoticed either, that the trade agreement announcement came a day before India launched an assault on Pakistan, escalating tensions in the region post-Pahalgam. India leaning on its trade partner benefits to get away with violence is nothing new, and was even central to UK involvement in India’s 1984 Sikh genocide.

The “landmark” trade deal announced on May 6, 2025, had been in works since Brexit in 2015. Now, under this Labour Government, agreements on imports, exports, and immigration were finally signed, for all to celebrate.

All, except for some rightfully concerned British Sikhs.

For decades, Sikh calls against Indian State interference in the UK have been ignored. According to the Washington Post, around 2015 the UK government even disregarded its own intelligence, complaining that India was carrying out “harassment” of Sikhs, particularly in Khanda’s home city of Birmingham.

Perhaps there was once a consensus among Western states to ignore India's bad extrajudicial habits abroad in order to access its markets and gain influence in the region. However, this ended in 2023 September when then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke on links between India and the assassination of Shaheed Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Shortly after, US President Joe Biden’s administration also raised the case, before confirming a similar attempt on the life of New York activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

The call-outs of India seemed coordinated and in response to coordinated attempts on Sikh lives. The assassination of Pakistan based Sikh activist Parmjit Singh Panjwar, in addition to the above, all happened within a few short weeks between May-June 2023.

Sandwiched in between all that, Khanda died of suspected poisoning, having suddenly gone from optimal health to on his death bed within days, in a case compared to Russia’s infamous Litvinenko assassination.

The Khanda death should have triggered the moment the UK finally publicly denounced Indian interference, just as the Nijjar assassination in Canada and the foiled plot to kill Pannun in the USA were for those respective nations. Just like the targets in those two countries, Khanda was also publicly demonised in Indian media and law in the lead up to his death. Yet, instead of marking a turn in approach to foreign interference, it seems to have underlined that the UK is now, in some ways, subservient to its once-colony of India, desperate for trade relations post-Brexit.

Many commentators have suggested the trade deal is proof of that too, with a strong belief India benefits much more from it. Nevertheless, despite celebrations around these new agreements, the Modi regime has arguably placed targeting UK-based Khalistanis above even a trade deal.

From Modi’s first engagements with the UK in 2015, he has been fabricating allegations about “Khalistani terror” in the UK. Claims he handed over a “dossier” on the topic to then UK PM David Cameron were quickly debunked.

Still, the pressure from Modi’s government on the UK has seen agreements to “tackle pro-Khalistan extremism” come about quicker than this trade deal did, with the random figure of £95,000 pledged by the UK to do so in 2023.

That agreement came after various government figures issued baseless statements on the so-called threat of Khalistanis in the UK. From two PMs (Rishi Sunak 2023, Boris Johnson 2022) to the Police Chief of Avtar Singh Khanda’s home city (Matt Ward 2021), regular bizarre allegations of a Khalistani threat to the UK have been raised by government figures. These claims ignore the research of CREST (Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats), which released a 2017 report on “Sikh radicalisation” which found no threat was posed to the UK public.

If the baseless claims were not a sign of India influencing the UK, the direct targeting of Sikh activists surely was.

India’s arbitrary imprisonment of Jagtar Singh Johal in 2017 was found to have been supported by UK intelligence. Less than a year later in 2018, a series of raids on Sikh activists saw personal info of those involved leaked to Indian media, which also bragged the raids came from Modi’s “diplomatic pressure”. Then in 2020 the #WestMidlands3 case saw Sikh activists targeted for extradition by India in a case found to be devoid of evidence, leading to it being thrown out by UK courts.

So this prompts the question after the trade deal, will the UK need to become even more extreme in its targeting of Sikh activism to appease India?

It could be speculated that the migration agreements could be used against India. Nothing would turn the Indian diaspora against Modi more than the thought of being forced back home, losing the opportunity to build a better life in the West. That kind of public pressure on Modi to comply with Western interests may yield results. As such, should a power shift now occur, it is not far-fetched to think the UK Labour government may be able to finally bring Jagtar Singh Johal home, now that a deal has been agreed. Sikh pressure on Labour is building.

There is no guarantee the dynamics between India-UK changes though. Many believe the new trade deal will only enhance India’s dominance in the relationship, especially given groups with deep links to Modi are in line to benefit from it.

What is clear though, is that justice for Bhai Avtar Singh Khanda will not come via the British government, although groups are still pursuing legal action. And that is because the Labour government’s Prime Minister Starmer is doing just what his Conservative predecessors did; putting trade deals with India above Sikh lives.

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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