The Scottish Government’s official X account posted about the Sikh festival of Bandi Chhor Divas at 11 AM on Remembrance Sunday, the same time as the two-minute silence for the United Kingdom’s war dead commenced nationwide. The X post read: “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.” The only other post on the Scottish Government account on November 8 promoted Climate Action Secretary Gillian Martin’s trip to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Turkey.
A Calculated Snub.
Critics described the timing as a deliberate choice by the left-wing separatist Scottish National Party (SNP) government, as people all over the United Kingdom have observed a two-minute silence for the war dead “on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” for over a century. Reform UK called the timing of the post an “unmistakable show of contempt” towards Scotland’s “history and sacrifice.” Max Bannerman, a Reform Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Highlands and Islands, said it was “no coincidence” that the SNP chose the exact hour of the silence “to virtue signal about multiculturalism while the rest of the country fell silent to remember the fallen.” He added that governments do not forget Remembrance Sunday, and described the action as a “calculated snub that Scotland should not forget.”
Scotland had the highest voluntary recruitment rate per capita in the United Kingdom at the start of the First World War, and Scots served as shock troops in some of the conflict’s bloodiest battles. Consequently, Scotland also suffered heavier losses per capita than England, Wales, and Ireland, with some remote communities in the Highlands and islands losing almost every man of fighting age.
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. pic.twitter.com/GAHZOQ26zW
— Scottish Government (@scotgov) November 8, 2026
The Official Response.
In Edinburgh, a traditional military parade proceeded down the Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle, led by the RAF Central Scotland Pipes and Drums. Wreaths were laid at the Stone of Remembrance by figures including Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander, Edinburgh Lord Provost Robert Aldridge, and First Minister John Swinney. The Scottish chiefs of the three Armed Forces also laid wreaths. Among those present was 100-year-old Second World War veteran George McLeod, formerly of the 4th Battalion, the King’s Own Scottish Borderers.
A Scottish Government spokesman said the First Minister, on behalf of the government, paid his respects at the Edinburgh events, and said that images were posted to Scottish Government social media channels. The spokesman added that Swinney posted his own reflections on the bravery of those who gave their lives, as did other SNP ministers who attended events. These formalities have been overshadowed not just by the lack of acknowledgment on the Scottish Government’s official X account, but by the pointed sharing of a post celebrating a Sikh festival at the exact moment the two-minute silence began, which few believe to be a coincidence.
