Many Sikhs are taken off blacklist

Ahead of the Punjab elections, the Centre has pruned the list of blacklisted Sikhs not allowed to enter India. After a request from Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, the Centre removed the names of some Sikhs settled abroad against whom visa restrictions were in force.

This move was reportedly taken on the “intervention” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was lobbied by a delegation of British Sikhs when he visited the UK a few months ago. Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal had urged the home minister and the PM to remove the names of 36 Sikhs settled overseas from the “secret blacklist” kept by the government. A total of nearly 36,000 persons, mostly people of Indian origin, are on the blacklist. Some names were removed from the blacklist after detailed discussions among stakeholders, official sources said. Those whose names are on the blacklist cannot enter the country.

The blacklist, prepared at different levels by the security agencies, is kept mostly on Indian-origin people allegedly involved in subversive or anti-India activities abroad, the sources said.

The Punjab CM had urged Mr Modi soon after he became Prime Minister in 2014 to direct the home ministry to set up a mechanism for a regular review of all such cases. Mr Badal had said the names of those against whom no cases or legal proceedings were pending should be removed.