Make public names struck off list: Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 20

Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira said although he welcomed the deletion of names of 312 Sikhs living abroad from the so-called blacklist, but doubted that the number of those on the list was much higher. Khaira asked why the BJP government or the Akali Dal leaders, who took credit for this, were not releasing the names of those 312 deleted and the names of the two persons who are still on the list.

“The reality is that the number of those Sikhs included in the blacklist run into thousands and not 312 as claimed by the SAD-BJP. Why there is a need for such a blacklist when the law permits the government to arrest any fugitive or law breaker if he comes to India,” he said.

Khaira said the bogey of blacklist had been created by the Centre to create a scare amongst the Sikhs living abroad not to raise their voice against India for any of their “anti-Punjab or anti-Sikh” agenda. It was natural on the part of Sikhs to raise their voice and peacefully demonstrate over the issue of attack on the Golden Temple or genocide of Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere in 1984. He said the blacklist was actually a draconian step of the Union Government to malign and defame Sikhs and brand them as “terrorists”.