London: The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has given permission for a pro-Khalistan rally to take place in Trafalgar Square on Sunday, while a pro-India rally scheduled for the same time and place has been told it is not allowed to go ahead.

A group formed six months ago -‘We Indians’ – is advertising on Facebook an event called ‘We Stand with India’ on Sunday from 11am to 4pm to “celebrate 71 years of India's Independence”, but its convener, Manoj Khanna, admitted to The Times of India his event was doubling up as a counter-protest to the London Declaration organised by US-based Sikhs for Justice (SFJ).

SFJ is holding its rally, where ex-MP George Galloway will speak at, from 3pm to 6pm to kick-start a campaign for a nonbinding referendum on Punjab’s “independence” in 2020. A debate broke out on Twitter late Friday night over whether the counter-protest was still happening after @atiqmalikawan tweeted “Eventbrite has sent me an email stating that the event has been removed from their site and that they were contacted by the venue for the event and were told the event was not authorised to take place and will not take place.”

That led to the official SFJ twitter handle sharing that tweet saying: “Has UK gov cancelled India’s Independence Day Rally?” followed by a sarcastic tweet: “The pro India gang did follow all the rules and regulations and simply didn’t have a knee jerk reaction to our London Declaration and publicly declared something that wasn’t authorized?”

A spokesperson for Sadiq Khan confirmed to TOI that the pro-India counter-protest was not allowed to go ahead as it did not have the necessary permissions. “The organisers of the ‘We Stand with India’ event have not applied for permission for their event to take place in Trafalgar Square. The City Hall operations team became aware of the event this week and tried to contact them to discuss their event and to advise them how to apply for permission to use the square, but the group failed to respond. In order to host an activity in Trafalgar Square all organisers must apply for permission to ensure events take place safely and peacefully,” the spokesperson said, When asked what would happen if the pro-India group still turns up, the spokesperson said: “They have not applied for permission to host an event there so they would be asked to move along by security. Any event that takes place in Trafalgar Square has to have permission.”

But Khanna told TOI: “We don’t need permission because we are not doing anything official. We are not having a rally, we are just celebrating Independence Day. We don’t need a stage and are not putting on any performance. We are just celebrating and gathering. No one can stop us doing that. We did not apply for any permission because another group of people had already got permission to and they won’t give permission to two groups. We will bring flags and food and dance and drums like we normally do for a celebration. We have informed the police we are coming.”

Dr Rami Ranger CBE, chairman of the British Sikh Association, tweeted: “UK Govt can’t cancel India’s Independence Day celebrations. In fact, they will be bigger and better this year. No amount of fake news can damage the event. These unelected and self appointed leaders should first get a decent job before representing a highly successful community.”

SFJ says it expects thousands of Sikhs from the UK, Canada, USA, Australia and the Middle East to attend its rally whilst Khanna says he is expecting 1,500 people at its counterprotest Independence Day rally. “I don’t know if anyone is coming from India as we are not talking to anyone from Punjab,” said Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, SFJ’s legal advisor. As for whether any youth were coming from Punjab, he said SFJ had sent out "hundreds of visa sponsorship letters" but did not know if the recipients had been granted visas.

(Times of India)