Intense political and diplomatic lobbying is on abroad in a bid to pull back from the gallows death row convict Devender Pal Singh Bhullar. Nearly 50 British MPs have signed a plea to be tabled in the British Parliament which urges the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to communicate ‘‘grave concern’’ on the issue to the Indian President.Bhullar was convicted in the 1993 bomb blast near Youth Congress office in Delhi in which 20 people were killed and Congress leader M.S. Bitta lost a leg.Technically called an ‘Early Day Motion’ (EDM), which is designed to table a plea for discussion and conventionally used by backbencher MPs, the EDM 631 also ‘‘notes with dismay’’ the death sentence passed by the Supreme Court and seeks to urge the President to exercise powers of clemency for commuting the sentence and ‘‘to demonstrate India’s commitment to human rights by abolishing the death penalty.’’British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Jack Straw has also lent his weight to the efforts by writing to fellow MP Alan Milburn, who is one of the signatories to the EDM, on the issue.‘‘The British High Commission in New Delhi has been monitoring Prof Bhullar’s case and is in touch with his lawyers.We are in touch with the German Mission in New Delhi.They plan to ask the EU to approach India to raise concerns about the case and Bhullar’s treatment while in custody. We will support. (Also) officials from the South Asia Department plan to meet members of Prof Bhullar’s family,’’ Straw wrote to Milburn in a letter, a copy of which was acquired by The Indian Express here.Straw talked about ‘‘using every opportunity’’ to press for abolition of the death penalty in India. Milburn had earlier written to Straw in conjunction with protests in UK by Sikhs and forwarded representations from British Sikh community leaders in Bhullar’s case.As for the EDM, it was signed by 29 Labour MPs, 14 Liberal Democrats and one Conservative MP. Other signatories were from the Ulster Unionist Party. Some of those who supported the EDM were Rob Marris (Wolverhampton South West), Fiona McTaggart (Slough), John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington), Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh North and Leigh), Martin Caton (Gower) and Glenda Jackson (Hampstead and Highgate).Since January, protests have been held outside the German Embassy and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the UK. Similar protests were being planned across Europe, North America and Australia. Sources added Akali Dal (Amritsar) president and Lok Sabha MP Simranjit Singh Mann and general secretary Jagmohan Singh Tony lobbied the British MPs and other fora in the case when they toured Europe recently. The two even raised the issue with the EU’s Foreign Affairs Department at Brussels and with UN officials in Geneva, they said.
