(West Dunbartonshire)
(SNP):One year has now passed since my constituent Jagtar
Singh Johal was arrested in India. Neither evidence nor a witness
has been placed before a court of law, and a report of torture has
been placed before the United Nations rapporteur on torture. I have
raised the issue with you previously, seeking ministerial responses
to letters and to requests for meetings with the Foreign Secretary.
A commitment was given, the last time I raised this, on the Floor
of the House. Can you assure me, while I am standing here and my
constituent’s brother is in the Under Gallery, that the new Foreign
Secretary could make that commitment, either through a statement to
the House or through my writing to the Minister directly, yet
again, as I have done already?
Mr Speaker: I am sorry that it is necessary for
the hon. Gentleman repeatedly to write to Ministers on this
matter, and it is obvious that he is dissatisfied with the
response or lack thereof. My only advice to the hon. Gentleman is
the advice I usually give to Members irritated in these
circumstances, which is persist—persist man, persist. He is a
dexterous and adroit parliamentary performer, and he will know
the instruments available to him. If he believes, as I rather
imagine he does, that the matter is urgent, he may wish to deploy
a procedure that might give him a chance of raising the matter
with a Minister in the Chamber on that basis.
