Return Native Dr Jagjit Singh Chauhan's return home to Punjab is not so much a victory for common sense, growing maturity on all sides or 'ground realities' on the Khalistan issue, as Indian government officials in London like to put it. It is something a lot more basic. His is the case of the surfing Sardarji who has come in from the cold. Last Sunday, Chauhan was sitting in a newspaper office in London - and how distant all this already seems now - sharing the deepest confidences with a journalist. The 75-year-old Sikh leader expressed great delight with the purchase of a personal computer, with a special program which enabled him to dabble in Gurmukhi. Chauhan quickly became a surfing addict. His particular fix was Indian newspaper and agency sites, which told him far more convincingly than any government propaganda ever could, that things had changed in Punjab since he left the state in 1971 to pop over to Lahore. A Reuters report published in British newspapers as far back as November 6, 1971, stated: 'Dr Jagjit Singh Chauhan, the international Sikh leader, said in Lahore yesterday the community's supreme religious body would raise a liberation army of 200,000 to achieve their goal of an independent Sikh state in India.' He is best known, of course, for his comment, published on June 14, 1984, following Operation Bluestar. He told a London press conference - and the remark was broadcast on the BBC World Service - that the world would soon learn of Indira Gandhi's death. When that happened, the Indian government held him responsible in some way for inciting her murder, and the British authorities as well as the BBC were both bitterly attacked by Delhi for allowing Chauhan openly to preach terrorism. Mrs Gandhi's assassination was followed by scenes of jubilation in Southall, the heart of the Sikh settlement in the UK, when sweetmeats were distributed to passersby. Relations between India and Britain reached their lowest point. The BBC's decision to broadcast Chauhan's interview 'violated all civilised norms,' was the comment in one Indian newspaper. In a leading article the paper raged: 'How would the British have reacted if the IRA terrorists had been permitted to broadcast over All India Radio a vicious attack on their Queen and Prime Minister.' So what was it that Chauhan had said? 'Some man, some young person, I don't know who he will be, will come forward and take off the head of Mrs Gandhi and all those responsible for the sacrilege of this palace,' were Chauhan's exact words, reported verbatim in the British media. To rub chilli powder into India's grievous wounds, Chauhan also declared himself president of a Khalistan government in exile. He had moved from his previous base in Reading, where he had lived since 1980, to an apartment in Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, which was renamed 'Khalistan House'. He also began to pay high profile visits to Washington. When Margaret Thatcher visited India in March, 1985, the Indian government again took up the case of Chauhan. The way was prepared for an extradition treaty between London and Delhi and a thaw in diplomatic relations. Realising his refuge in Britain could be endangered, Chauhan - or Jagjit Singh 'Chohan', as he signed himself sometimes (perhaps to confuse those who kept files on Jagjit Singh Chauhan) - wrote to The Daily Telegraph on March 21, 1985. Here, he put forward a non-controversial political philosophy which he said he espoused. 'I have never believed in violence. I have never advocated violence. I have never, either in private or public, called for anybody's murder,' he insisted, although not entirely convincingly. And he added: 'If I am a 'terrorist' for holding the political belief that I do, then it must be said and said clearly and loudly that the late M.K. Gandhi was the leader of them all through the ages. I do not hold the view that he was a terrorist; nor am I one.' In 1992, he accepted undisclosed damages from the Sunday Times for publishing an article seven years previously linking him with terrorism and drug trafficking. Last Sunday, in London, Chauhan came across as a 'lonely man'. The charms of living on modest state handouts while the rest of the Sikh community became increasingly prosperous were starting to pall. He explained he was also a 'through and through Punjabi' who did not want to die in England. The Punjab High Court had ordered the Indian government, which had revoked his passport years ago, to restore his travel document. There were other reasons for Chauhan wanting to return home. Although there are an estimated 300,000 Sikhs in Britain, the word which crops up only rarely in conversation these days is 'Khalistan'. And a name which is almost forgotten is Jagjit Singh Chauhan. Most gurdwaras still have posters on Khalistan, but as an issue it is pursued by only a dwindling band of supporters. And among them, the factions are divided on the wisdom of Chauhan's decision to go back. But returned he has. Since then, he has spoken by phone to friends in London and assured them he is 'full of joy'. He is unlikely to be arrested for the time being, even though he still faces serious charges. There is probably some 'understanding' with Prakash Singh Badal, the Punjab chief minister, or so it is believed in Britain. Since Chauhan has told friends in Britain that he does not expect to return in the near future, the government hopes the risk it has taken in allowing him back will pay off. A militant mended could help matters in Punjab. Chauhan trained as a doctor and became a finance minister in the 1960s in the state government of Lachman Singh Gill. Somewhere along the line, he became a convert to the cause of Khalistan. According to a spokesman for Chauhan's Council of Khalistan in London, his views 'have not changed an inch'. He has been consistent on one point, though. He always said he wanted to return to Punjab and, to this end, never took up British nationality. He will certainly enjoy the attention of journalists, which was so conspicuously lacking in what had become a routine life in London. As to how the government should handle the return of the prodigal, a prominent Sikh in Southall with little time for Khalistan or Khalistanis had this advice to offer: 'They should ignore the bugger.'