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BBC film on Bluestar angers
Sikhs in UK
 London
: A controversial BBC film about the Indian Army storming the Golden
Temple in 1984, which depicts late Sikh leader Sant Jarnail Singh
Bhindranwale “in a similar way to Osama Bin Laden”, has provoked a
furious response from many members of the community in Britain, a
media report said.
A number of
Sikhs have condemned the documentary, 1984: A Sikh Story, which they
see as nothing but a slur on Bhindranwale, who was killed during the
‘Operation Bluestar’ ordered by the then Indian Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi, The Daily Mail reported.
Dr Sadhu Singh,
the Chairman of the Council of Sikh Temples, said many viewers were
angered that "the BBC showed him (Bhindranwale) looking like bin
Laden”.
He said, “They
used pictures of him wearing a turban and holding a gun. To someone
who doesn’t know what Sikhism is about, it would be very misleading.
Sikhs were attacked after September 11, but Sikhs are nothing to do
with bin Laden.”“Some people are very upset that the documentary
also showed Sonia Deol dancing with Hindus as if there is no problem
between Hindus and Sikhs. The feeling is still there that people who
were responsible for 1984 have not been brought to justice.”
Manmohan Singh
Khalsa, chairman of World Muslim-Sikh Federation said, "'This story
is an typical example of anti-Sikh propaganda by Hindu terrorists in
UK. Hindu terrorists have a communal agenda."
He said the BBC
was a credible and respectable media worldwide but has slipped on
thsi issue. He warned that this kind of anti-Sikh propaganda can
only create tensions between Sikh and the Hindu community.
"Hindu terrorism
and their propaganda is the main reason behind in growth of tensions
between Sikhs and Hindus in
India
and abroad,' he said.
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How canards
are spread?
Here is a
sampling of how anti-Sikh propaganda is pushed by certain
lobbies arraigned against the Sikh community.
* ''Sikh
separatists are receiving vital funding from the UK which could
support renewed violence, police in India have told the BBC's
File On 4 programme.''
* ''Chief of
the Punjab Police, NPS Aulakh, said money was reaching militants
from British-based supporters via informal funding channels in
the Sikh community.''
*
"Definitely some of the money was being used to fund militant
activities in the Punjab,"
* "The vast
majority of Sikhs want nothing to do with them but they must
take some of the blame."
* Some
members of the Sikh community told File On 4 they fear the
extremists could use Sikh temples the way radical Muslim cleric
Abu Hamza radicalised the Finsbury Park Mosque in London.
All these
are allegations. Not even a shred of any solid proof. This seems
like a response to the Ban The RSS campaign. The BBC has not
taken any note of the campaign of a real terrorist group the
RSS, but instead claims Punjab has an insurgency and Sikhs fund
it from here. There is no armed insurgency in Punjab, so where
do they get their information from?
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20
January 2010
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