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• Asylum seekers’ spouses, wards can get Indian visas

Are wards or spouses of those who sought political asylum in western countries eligible to get visas to visit their relatives and friends in India?Until recently, there were reportedly unwritten instructions to all missions abroad that applications of such wards should not be entertained. But now, there is a change in the policy.

Kuljeet Kaur Chahal of the US, whose father had taken asylum in the US on the plea of political persecution back home, has been given a visa to visit India by the Indian Consulate-General in California.

“I have been raising the issue of ‘black list’ for a long time,” says Tarlochan Singh, MP, maintaining that he had been in regular correspondence with both the Home and External Affairs Ministries on the subject.

• Stop Politics of Sikh Black List
• Taliban in Sikhs – Practical Account
• Hard and Blunt – Tarlochan Singh on Sikh Black List
• Joy of Giving

A significant advisory role to Ishar Singh Bindra has been played by Tarlochan Singh, Member of the Rajya Sabha. He is perhaps the only enlightened voice in the Sikhs today who keeps warning his community of the danger of listening to pig-headed bigots, who are worse than the Taliban among Muslims. He released a pictorial album of the Bindra family history, A Journey from Kallar to New York.

• Tarlochan clarifies on INLD memo

Rajya Sabha MP Tarlochan Singh today sought to clear the controversy surrounding the INLD’s memorandum to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday. The ministry had yesterday issued a clarification that the INLD delegation led by former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala did not raise the khap issue before Chidambaram, after news in this regard were published in a section of the press.

Tarlochan Singh, who made it to the Rajya Sabha with INLD support, said the delegation met the Home Minister solely to give a memorandum for the removal of Haryana Home Minister Gopal Kanda.

• Taliban in Sikhs
• Reviving of Legislative Council

Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily has put the ball back in the court of the Punjab Government asking it not only to pass a resolution but also give an undertaking to support the revival of the Upper House, the State Legislative Council.

Responding to Tarlochan Singh, Moily said that though the Punjab Assembly had passed a resolution in 1975 and again some time later, a letter written in September 2002 conveyed the inability of the state to support the Legislative Council primarily because of the small size of the state.

• Tarlochan Singh attends Baisakhi Celebrations in Canada

Baisakhi has now become a global festival, thanks to the growing influence of Punjabi immigrant communities in different parts of the world. Be it the US or Canada, Germany or England, Australia or New Zealand, Kenya or Tanzania, if there is one event that brings the Punjabi community together every year in April, it is Baisakhi. Everywhere, huge colourful processions are taken out from places of worship to city centres, where leaders of various political parties, including, at times, MPs, ministers and others, make it a point to address the congregations.

• Sikhs being discriminated against, says Tarlochan

Rajya Sabha MP Tarlochan Singh yesterday accused the Central Government of discriminating against the Sikhs in the grant of benefits made available to minorities in the country.

Talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of a function organised by local MLA Rajbir Singh of the Indian National Lok Dal at Duliana village in this district in memory of the two Sikhs beheaded in Afghanistan, the former chairman of the National Minorities Commission said Sikhs constituted 1.75 per cent, Christians 2.5 per cent and Muslims 15 per cent of the total population. However, despite Sikhs having the lowest population, the Centre was making available more benefits to Muslims in the name of minorities while Sikhs were being discriminated against.

• MP writes to PC on amnesty to Sikh youth

Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana Tarlochan Singh has shot off a protest letter to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram asking why the Central Government was hesitant to provide amnesty to Sikh youth on the lines of the one announced for Kashmiri youth recently.

Tarlochan Singh was reacting to a statement of the Home Minister in which he had been quoted in the media as having said the amnesty scheme was so far applicable only to Kashmiri youth.

• MHA writes to Rajya Sabha member Tarlochan Singh

The name of Khalistan ideologue, Jagjit Singh Chauhan, who died on June 4, 2007, has been finally taken off the black list of Sikh NRIs. In a communication to Rajya Sabha member Tarlochan Singh, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Mullappally Ramachandran said names of seven NRIs, including Dr Jagjit Singh Chauhan, have been taken off the black list of Sikh NRIs.

Another name deleted from the list is of Sukhbir Singh of Belgium, who also died some time ago.Ramachandran had sent details to Tarlochan in response to the question he had raised in the Rajya Sabha on April 16, 2008. Interestingly, the information supplied over 20 months after the question was raised in Parliament was last updated in September 2008.Tarlochan was informed that 205 Sikh NRIs, who took part in the protests against Operation Bluestar in 1984, were blacklisted. Out of this list of 205 Sikh NRIs, cases of 51 were reviewed last. Of them, seven were cleared.

• Martyrs’ project courts first row – Tarlochan Singh objects

The National Registry of Martyrs project today courted its first controversy, with Rajya Sabha member Tarlochan Singh objecting to the fixing of 1857 as cut-off date for the inclusion of martyrs to the list.

Demanding that the same be advanced to 1846 when the British took over Punjab and the Sikhs fought Anglo-Sikh wars, Tarlochan Singh said the last most historic battle against the British rule was fought under General Sham Singh Attariwala, who died a heroic death in the battlefield.