There was something missing from the Scottish government’s official X account on Remembrance Sunday: Remembrance Sunday.
The account, which has 426,000 followers, made no mention of the commemoration at any point yesterday.
Instead, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the SNP-run administration posted: ‘Happy Bandi Chhor Divas. The Scottish Government sends warm wishes to Sikh communities in Scotland and around the world as they celebrate Bandi Chhor Divas.’
At best, the timing of this tweet, at exactly 11 a.m., looks like a deeply disrespectful oversight; at worst, it looks like a provocation by a government that seeks out every opportunity to drive a wedge between Scottish and British identities and their national symbols.
Factor in the fact that the X account will be managed by Scotland-based civil servants, a contingent which is still part of the Home Civil Service but has long been accused of ‘going native’ under the SNP, and it’s not hard to see why some are very cross about this.
None crosser than Harriet Cross, Tory MP for Gordon and Buchan, who has written to Holyrood first minister John Swinney demanding answers. Cross points out that 207,000 Scots are listed on the roll of honour at the Scottish war memorial, and yet the official voice of the Scottish government on X used Remembrance Sunday instead to post about a Sikh festival and a ministerial jolly to COP31.
Cross also reminds Swinney of the history of Sikh involvement in Allied war efforts, and that in snubbing Remembrance Sunday his government’s X account also snubbed their sacrifice.
She writes: ‘Bandi Chorr Divas is, of course, an important date for Sikhs. Indeed, it coinciding with Remembrance Sunday was the perfect opportunity for the Scottish Government to recognise the almost 200,000 Sikhs who were killed or injured fighting in the World Wars alongside allied forces. They didn’t do this. They chose to just ignore Remembrance Sunday altogether.’
Nationalists underscore the fact that Swinney posted a tribute from his personal account, plus his official first minister account also observed the day, but even among those sympathetic to the Scottish government this oversight has led to reproach and exasperation.
Whatever was behind the snub, whether cock-up or taxpayer-funded rage-bait, Mr Steerpike suggests the Scottish government social media team set a reminder next year. If they’re still in the job by then.
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