T. R. Ramachandran
Tribune News ServiceNew Delhi, September 4
In a significant development, the Union Government after constant review of several thousand blacklisted Sikh non-resident Indians settled in the UK, Canada and the USA has slashed the number to just 50 individuals.
The perseverance of the Parkash Singh Badal government in Punjab, the National Commission of Minorities (NCM) and Sikh organisations to end the discrimination against the minority community found favour with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.
The Union Home Ministry has communicated its decision of restricting the list of blacklisted Sikh NRIs to 50 persons to the Punjab Government and the NCM after extensive reviews taking into account the current disposition of those inimical to this country.
Obviously that the Union Home Ministry and various intelligence agencies associated with the reviews have no option but to retain a blacklist of 50 Sikh NRIs whose diabolical intentions of speaking through the barrel of a gun remains unchanged.
The Centre has refused to scrap the blacklist of Sikh NRIs based on its latest assessment. It believes that the drastic pruning of the blacklist of Sikh NRIs will facilitate all those anxious of visiting their homeland but had been denied a visa for the past 16 years. It was hoped they would forget the rancour of the past and join the national mainstream besides contributing their bit in developmental endeavours. Most of these 50 blacklisted Sikh NRIs are in Canada, the UK and the USA.
The blacklist of Sikh NRIs prepared by various intelligence agencies since 1984 has been a serious bone of contention in Punjab after terrorism was crushed and a duly elected government assumed office. The annoyance of blacklisted Sikh NRIs has been aggravated over the years because of their inability to perform the last rites of their relatives even on humanitarian grounds.
The Badal government and the NCM have chipped away in tandem to end the discrimination against the Sikh community and sought the personal intervention of Union Home Minister L.K. Advani in this regard.
Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and NCM Vice-Chairman Tarlochan Singh held several sessions with officials of the Union Ministries of Home and External Affairs. It was on their insistence that Mr Advani set up a high power review committee in February last year. The review
committee comprised officials of the Home and External Affairs Ministries, the Punjab Government, the Research and Analysis Wing of the Cabinet Secretariat and the Intelligence Bureau.After minutely going through the blacklist several times, the list was reduced to 190 in April this year. After another review, the blacklist of Sikh NRIs was brought within two digits to 98. However, it was at the final review meeting on August 16 that the blacklist was further restricted to 50 persons considered as hardcore elements.
In a formal letter to Mr Advani, Mr Tarlochan Singh thanked the minister that only 50 names had been kept in the blacklist of Sikh NRIs permitting all others to the visa facility. He thanked Mr Advani for his kind gesture and said this could happen in a short span of 18 months because of the prompt action taken by the Union Home Ministry.
