London: The Leader of Birmingham City Council, Councillor John Cotton has written to the Deputy Prime Minister of UK calling for a judge-led public inquiry into UK’s involvement in Indian Army’s June 1984 attack on Sikh Gurudwaras in Punjab and adjoining states of India, to commence as soon as possible.
Letter by Leader of Birmingham City Council Councillor John Cotton
He has stated “any inquiry into British involvement into Operation Blue Star should take a wider approach, and consider the events of the following decade”.
This follows on from a motion passed by Derby City Council on 18 September 2024 and a letter sent by the Labour Leader for Derby City Council, Nadine Peatfield on 10 October to the Deputy Prime Minister.
Letter by Leader of Derby City Council Councillor Nadine Peatfield
Her letter stated: “The best way to provide the truth on the historic role the British government played in June 1984 is through a public inquiry led by a judge.”
The letter continued by stating: “I have been asked to write to you to request a timeline on when the promised inquiry into the role Britain played in these attacks will take place.”
A press release by the Sikh Federation UK says: “We checked with the Council Leader for Derby and she told us earlier this week she had still not had a response from the Deputy Prime Minister. It has now been over 7 weeks since she wrote to the Deputy Prime Minister”.
Dabinderjit Singh OBE, the Sikh Federation’s Lead Executive for political engagement said:
“Today’s letter from the Leader of Birmingham City Council adds to the pressure on the UK government to formally announce the start of the judge led public inquiry.”
“We are coming up to 150 days of a Labour government and they remain extremely tight-lipped about formally announcing the start of the public inquiry that they promised into UK involvement in the 1984 massacre of thousands of Sikhs.”
“The Labour government announced on 11 September the start of a public inquiry into the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.”
“Thousands of innocent Sikh pilgrims were killed in June 1984 in which the UK government under Thatcher were involved so it is only reasonable to expect at least the same priority be given to this public inquiry.”
“Labour has been promising a public inquiry to the 1 million strong British Sikh community and the wider British public while in opposition for the last 10 years, including in two Labour manifestos.”
“We understand because of the subject matter the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy will need to make the formal announcement of a public inquiry in Parliament.”
“We therefore wrote to David Lammy about the judge-led public inquiry on 23 September suggesting it should start in the 40th anniversary year.”
“As we did not receive a response, we followed this up with another letter on 31 October and reminded him the judge-led inquiry must also look anti-Sikh measures in the UK under Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) that has been backed today by the Leader of Birmingham City Council.”
“We received a reply to our letters from Catherine West, the Foreign Minister for the Indo Pacific on 14 October, but it only referred to the case of Jagtar Singh Johal and was totally silent about the judge-led inquiry.”
“We have also been writing to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Cabinet Office and the Home Secretary over the last 8 weeks as they will also have a role in the judge-led inquiry. Again there has been a deafening silence.”
“On 16 November we were forced to write to the Prime Minister on behalf of over 300 UK Gurdwaras and Sikh organisations requesting him to intervene and get his Cabinet Ministers to respond to our letters.”
“The letter today from the Labour Leader of Birmingham City Council should be a wake-up call to the Labour government that they need to formally announce the judge-led public inquiry they promised.”