Centre prunes Sikh blacklist

The Union government has deleted as many as 274 names from the blacklist of Sikhs

The blacklist loaded with restrictions such as being barred from return or travel to India was put in place on certain Sikhs after Operation Bluestar in 1984 and the Kanishka bombings.

Many of those hit by the inclusion of their names in the blacklist were non-resident Sikhs settled in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.

Claiming success over the development, former deputy chief minister of Punjab and president of the Akali Dal, Sukhbir Badal said that the Centre has pruned the existing blacklist of 314 Sikhs to 40.

He said that separate blacklist of Sikhs maintained by Indian consulates in various countries too has been scrapped and only one blacklist maintained by the Centre will exist now.

Multiple blacklists were only complicating matters, Badal said.

The Akali Dal, which has been pursuing its demand to prune the blacklist, maintains that the decision by the Modi government will help scores of NRIs.

Families of the remaining 40 Sikhs still on the blacklist can now travel to India.

Various Sikh organisations and radicals from time and again have been demanding a review of the blacklist.