HER dysfunctional Home Office and its hostile environment towards immigrants have made her something of a hate figure and now calls are mounting for Priti Patel to resign as Home Secretary or be sacked.
A petition started less than a week ago is rapidly approaching 11,000 signatures following a judge’s dismissal of an extradition appeal for three men – known as the West Midlands Three – by the Indian government over the murder of a political leader who was shot dead in India in 2009.
Patel has been criticised for her “special relationship” with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right wing government and her role in sanctioning the extradition request.
District Judge Michael Snow asked during the case at Westminster Magistrates Court why it had come to court, and questioned why the Home Secretary in December 2020 had certified the extradition request and ordered a judge to issue arrest warrants.
Edward Fitzgerald QC, representing one of the three, said the extradition request was “made on the basis of wholly unsubstantiated allegations”.
Preet Kaur Gill, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Sikhs, demanded answers from Patel over concerns that the request had been certified despite previous investigations and no credible new evidence.
Mankamal Singh, an advisor to the Sikh Network said the reality of the past few years with the incarceration of Scot Jagtar (Jaggi) Singh Johal in India and the lack of engagement between the Government and the family, had shown the Tory government had come to believe that those who advocate for Sikh rights are “a fringe that can be persecuted without fear of a community backlash”.
Jaggi Singh was “kidnapped” by Indian authorities while shopping with his wife in 2017 and is still in jail pending trial, and facing a potential death sentence over a confession he said was signed under torture, which included electrocution.
The Foreign Office has repeatedly said it is doing all it can to support him and his family and has raised the matter 70 times with Indian counterparts, but the Indian government has simply dismissed criticism over the case.
Mankamal added: “The horrific treatment of Jagtar Singh Johal and the West Midlands Three is being interpreted as a ‘diplomatic gift’ from the UK to India to boost post-Brexit trade relations.
“This is not the first time that British Sikhs have felt that they can be used by the Government as a political pawn with impunity.”
Raj Karega Khalsa, who started the petition, said Patel cannot be trusted to remain Home Secretary. He said: “Everything she does promotes the Conservative Party as the nasty party. Many Conservative MPs believe she is a liability to the Conservatives and an apology from her this time will not save her.”
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