Severe breach of Jaishankar’s security in London by Khalistani goons points to Britain’s complicity – Firstpost

Britain has done it again. The once mighty empire, now a third-rate power that battles Islamist takeover of its society, depends on the United States for security and fights with France over fish, hasn’t let go of two things. Delusion of grandeur and proclivity for mischief.

Both the traits were on recent display. A few days back Brits took umbrage at JD Vance calling them a “random nation”. Though the American vice-president issued a denial that he was referring to Britain, nobody was convinced. Outraged Brits stomped their feet and clutched at their pearls, maybe because they suspected Vance was not far from the truth. Irrelevance kills.

The second trait was on display Wednesday evening when the Indian foreign minister’s security was allowed to be breached by the London coppers who took on the role of mute spectators as sloganeering Khalistani thugs demonstrated outside the Chatham House building where S Jaishankar was taking part in a panel discussion.

Imagine the implications.

The external affairs minister is on an official trip to the UK from March 4-9. He has already met the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and foreign secretary David Lammy to strengthen UK-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The aim of the visit is to “supercharge” trade talks.

Britain, now ruled by the Labour Party, is pursuing a free-trade deal with India, talks for which were recently relaunched. Both sides are also focusing on jointly combatting trafficking and extremism, as well as “fostering mutual economic growth, technological innovation, and collaboration on global challenges.” Two new Indian consulates are coming up in Belfast and Manchester.

Amid all these positive developments and ‘friendly’ vibes, it is strange that British authorities failed to provide adequate security to the foreign minister of one of its most consequential partners on whom a post-Brexit Britain is banking on for market access and continued economic growth. Its economic prospects might be bleak, its society might be riven with tension over immigration and creeping Islamism but London’s habit of playing games dies hard.

The MEA should ask for an explanation on how the minute details of Jaishankar’s itinerary – down to the exact schedule of when he would enter a specific location – was leaked to Khalistani goons who have a history of issuing violent threats against Indian diplomats. Who tipped off the K-gang ruffians that the Indian foreign minister would be visiting the London-based think tank on Wednesday evening?

What’s even more worrying is that no sooner did Jaishankar emerge from the building at the conclusion of the event and boarded his vehicle, one Khalistani terrorist got past the barricades, evaded the Met Police and rushed towards the minister’s car. As the hesitant cops looked on, the tall, bearded man stood in front of the vehicle, unfurled the Tricolour and proceeded to rip it off before the jostling cops took him away to the other side of the street.

Several questions arise. How could one Khalistani slip through the cordon and go so close to the Indian foreign minister in presence of so many cops? He could have been brandishing a firearm, a projectile, sharp weapon or strapped with a detonating device. This is not only a mere security breach but a severe lapse in the protection that British authorities are diplomatically obligated to provide to the visiting dignitary whose life could have been at risk.

What made it even worse was that instead of apprehending the aggressor, cops were seen conversing with the Khalistani goon and letting him off with a gentle, friendly pat on the back. It suggested extreme disregard for India’s valid concerns at best, and at worst, collusion.

A gentle, friendly pat on the back from cops to the aggressor. https://t.co/wsqKZZpsve

— Sreemoy Talukdar (@sreemoytalukdar) March 6, 2025

It’s not that the UK does not crack down on protestors. The Starmer government, in fact, has recently been lambasted by Vance at Munich who said that “in Britain and across Europe, free speech is in retreat”, an accusation Vance repeated in presence of the media to Starmer during the latter’s White House sojourn.

Vance wasn’t exaggerating. The British police now have more teeth than ever to take on protestors.
Kids as young as 12 have been jailed in 2024 for “violent disorder”, that involves “kicking the front window of a shop”, “throwing projectiles at cops” and “kicking at a bus as it drove past him”.

Last October, a British army veteran was picked up and prosecuted by the police for the
‘crime’ of praying silently outside an abortion clinic for his own unborn son.  The army reservist was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £9,000 because for apparently “breaching a ban on protests within a legal buffer zone around the clinic in Bournemouth,” an Orwellian development that Vance referred to during his Munich address.

And the very London cops, who see nothing wrong in Khalistani hoodlums endangering the security of a visiting foreign dignitary, issue dire threats to British and even American citizens over
online posts. A 50-year-old Briton was jailed, for instance, last year for posting an ‘offensive’ Facebook meme.

And yet Khalistani goons who vandalise Indian consulates, smash glass panes, injure security personnel stationed at Indian High Commission in London enjoy immunity from prosecution. Indian diplomats are regularly targeted with death threats and hate speech. In 2023, for instance, Khalistani hecklers prevented Indian high commissioner Vikram Doraiswami from entering a gurdwara in Scotland and tried to force open his car. Nobody was prosecuted.

Elon Musk wasn’t off the mark when he slammed ‘two-tier Starmer’ and compared Britain to the communist USSR. The insult cut deep.

British double standards are all too evident. India expresses outrage, summons British envoys and gives them an earful. The Brits just shrug it off. Heavens forbid, however, if a British diplomat is even slightly discomfited on Indian soil. The world champion whiners expect to be extended every security protocol that they can’t bring themselves to provide to the Indians.

Charles and his wife Camilla may visit Kerala on a secret ‘wellness’ trip and the Indian side is expected not to make it public knowledge, but every detail of a visiting Indian foreign minister’s itinerary is provided to Khalistani goons well in advance. This isn’t negligence. It’s complicity.

It is quite apparent that Britain uses the Khalistan issue as a tool of statecraft to exert pressure on India, and the levers are manipulated in accord with its strategic needs. UK’s foreign office issues a “strong condemnation” while British coppers mollycoddle K-gang members.

The Khalistanis also form a minority bloc that amplifies their political power. Votebank considerations come in the way of administering law and order. Once Sikh Labour leader, a local councillor, “is being investigated by her own party for sharing posts that support Khalistani terrorist groups and militants who have assassinated public figures in India,” reported Times of India.

Unless India makes the UK address its concerns and weighs in with the leverages that it has over the failing British economy, the Brits won’t get the memo. There is no ‘fair play award’ in geopolitics.

The writer is Deputy Executive Editor, Firstpost. He tweets as @sreemoytalukdar. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.