Snippets from UK: After Big Boast, Pak's Kashmir Protest in London against India Fizzles Out

Low Turnout: The big demonstration planned outside the Indian High Commission to mark what Pakistanis call Black Day when Kashmir became a part of India in 1947 turned out to be such a small affair as to be seriously embarrassing for Pakistan. Nor more than a hundred or so gathered, and they included supporters of Julian Assange and of green groups associated with the upcoming climate change conference. The Pakistani organisers did all they could to gain numbers, but the numbers just didn’t add up.

Khalistanis Fail To Add Muscle: The little group of Khalistanis who inevitably turn up at such protests had their go at getting disruptive, though a strong police presence would have banished any thought of violence. They began to post Referendum 2020 posters on the Indian High Commission building. Under pressure from the High Commission, the police finally drove them away. But the low turnout was itself a picture of a failed demonstration on their biggest day for demonstrating.

A Second Go: Leader of the group Sikhs for Justice Gurpatwant Panun came down from New York to lead the Khalistanis demonstrating outside the Indian High Commission. As it turned out, there were not that many to lead. Panun is planning another demonstration against Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Glasgow. That will now be between him and his lot, and the Scottish police.

Cutting Costs On Quarantining: Britain has realised, now, that the cost of quarantining in a hotel may be too much for some. For the few countries still red-listed, Britain has offered a plan to repay the cost of hotel quarantining in instalments, and in very few cases, waive that cost altogether. That issue is of course not applicable to Indians who were taken off the red list, compulsory quarantining at a hotel and then off quarantining altogether, under considerable pressure of course.

One In A Million: A forgotten painting by Bhupen Khakhar that was acquired in an auction in a bookshop in Ahmedabad almost 50 years ago sold for 1.2 million dollars at an auction in London, Sotheby’s reports. This was six times the estimated price for the painting titled Krishna Hotel, and the third-highest for the artist.​