Barring a few, vast majority of Sikh community deeply attached to integrity of India: Jaishankar

There may be a few people in the Sikh community who were pursuing their own agenda in a way that was detrimental to the interests of India, but the vast majority of the community was deeply attached to the welfare, security and integrity of the country, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday.

Lauding the Sikh community for building India's image abroad, he also said the government was committed to ensuring that perpetrators of atrocities during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots were brought to justice.

The external affairs minister was interacting with NRIs in Australia, Suriname, the US, Singapore, Qatar, Malaysia, the UK and Mauritius through video-conference on the occasion of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas when he made the comment.

Jaishankar said that Sikhs were an extraordinarily diligent, hardworking, patriotic and contributing community in India and abroad.

"There may be few people who are pursuing their own agenda in a way it is detrimental to the interests of India. But I want to be very very clear here - we see the vast majority of this community as people who are deeply attached to the welfare, security and integrity of India. I want to make that very clear," he added.

To a question regarding misconceptions about the Sikh community abroad, Jaishankar said among the Indian communities in foreign countries, Sikhs have been at the forefront in shaping the brand and image of India.

Referring to the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, he said, "As a government, we are committed to ensuring that the perpetrators of atrocities are brought to justice. Where some cases regarding anti-Sikh riots were closed, we have had them reopened and reinvestigated. We have looked at compensation for people who have been affected by the riots of 1984."
Responding to a question posed by an NRI from Singapore, Jaishankar said, "We as a country, as a government definitely would like to see the NRIs invest metaphorically and literally in India in a bigger way."
The minister replied, "In a way, this issue is special to Malaysia. We have had few other countries where we have had similar situations... I think that the rules need to respond to this situation."
"If you have a situation where you are dealing with third and fourth generation -- there are no enough documentary linkages -- we will have to look at it and see if we can figure out a sort of a carve out that would address that need."