Skip to main content

Posts

Canada Crisis: Forty years later, Operation Bluestar hits India’s geo-political relations

  Canada Crisis: Forty years later, Operation Bluestar hits India’s geo-political relations Ground Zero Jagtar Singh That India and Canada have expelled six diplomats each is now old story. Coinciding with this deepening crisis between the two countries is the media report that India has conveyed to USA that that ‘CC1’, code for Indian official who allegedly figured in the plan to assassinate US-based Sikh separatist activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, has been arrested. The issue in general in both the cases is the same but the approach is diametrically opposite.   What is common in both the cases is the allegation of hand of Indian agencies in a murder in Canada and plan to murder on the soil of USA. What is again common in both the cases is the Sikh narrative relating to activities of the Sikh separatists demanding sovereign state of Khalistan in the land of Punjab that is part of India. These separatists operate from the lands of Canada, USA, UK and several other counties
1 comment
Read more
Recent posts

Punjab subsidised India’s food grains consumers by Rs. 1,23,904.84 Cr from 1997, centre must pay

  Punjab subsidised India’s fiid grains consumers by Rs. 1,23,904.84 Cr from 1997, centre must pay Ground Zero Jagtar Singh Chandigarh, July 30: Free power to the tube wells in the farm sector in Punjab has cost the state government a whopping    Rs. 1,23,904.84 cr from 1997 till 2023 as per the report (TOI, July 29, 2024). At another level, this is the amount by which Punjab tax payers have subsidised the consumers of food grains in India. About 80 per cent of this power is used to produce wheat and rice that is procured from the state by the centre for the central pool at what is known as the minimum support price. The contribution of Punjab to the central pool of food grains is the highest among all states in the country. And this Minimum Support Price does not include this part of the cost that is born by the state government. Why should Punjab subsidized the food grains that is exported to the rest of the country? Invested in creation of infrastructure, this amount
Post a Comment
Read more

History seems to be ominously repeating itself to drive Punjab into religio-political minefield again

  History ominously repeating itself to drive Punjab into religio-political minefield again Ground Zero Jagtar Singh This headline is not rooted in some sort of pessimism. The signals are loud and clear. The onus to counter such signals is on the Punjab government. History in Punjab seems to be repeating itself to push Punjab into yet another cycle of what can be termed as the avoidable toxic situation. That cycle has now impacted even geo-political relations of India with some countries, especially Canada where the Sikhs are settled in sizeable numbers. In the context of the Sikhs as a globalized people, it is pertinent to mention that even in United Kingdom House of Commons, the representation of the Sikhs is now in double digit after the recent elections. Punjab is still impacted by the tremors of religio-political   dynamics that got triggered in 1978 with the Sikh-Nirankari clash on the Baisakhi on April 13 at Amritsar, the religious capital of the Sikhs. The prese
Post a Comment
Read more

Akal Takht yet again reinforces legitimacy to Sikh struggle by hailing its activists including Gajinder, Nijjer and Panjwar

  Akal Takht yet again reinforces legitimacy to Sikh struggle by hailing its activists including  Gajinder, Nijjer and Panjwar Ground Zero Jagtar Singh Chandigarh: The announcement from Akal Takht to install portraits of Sikh activists Gajinder Singh, Hardeep Singh Nijjer and Paramjit Singh Panjwar in the Central Sikh Museum in Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) has expectedly evoked strong reaction from a section in India. Neither the installation of portraits of Sikh struggle activists at this most sacred shrine is new nor the angry reaction against it. Jathedar Raghbir Singh, chief of Akal Takht, the supreme Sikh seat articulating transcendental Sikh sovereignty, made this announcement at the bhog ceremony of Gajinder Singh, on July 13 last at Gurdwara Baba Gurbaksh Singh Shaheed, next to Akal Takht. Gajinder Singh,   earlier breathed his last in Lahore in Pakistan where he had been staying for years after his release from jail there. Such decisions from the highest institutions
Post a Comment
Read more

Issue is restoration of credibility of Akali Dal and Panthic institutions

  Issue is restoration of credibility of Akali Dal and Panthic institutions Ground Zero Jagtar Singh   The atonement letter submitted to Akal Takht chief Jathedar Raghbir Singh on Monday by a section of the senior Shiromani Akali Dal leaders is more than just power struggle in this second oldest political party in the country constituted in 1920 to articulate Sikh aspirations and ambitions. Some of the signatories include 4-time chief of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee Bibi Jagir Kaur, Prem Singh Chandumajra, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Surjit Singh Rakhra, Bhai Manjit Singh, Gurpartap Singh Wadala and Karnail Singh Panjoli. Shiromani Akali Dal was earlier headed by party stalwart Parkash Singh Badal from 1995 onwards who passed on the baton to his son Sukhbir Singh Badal in 2008. This dynastic succession was unprecedented in the glorious history of this party associated with the most peaceful struggles in India before and after the 1947 partition of the country. The
Post a Comment
Read more

Kanishka bombing 1985, Nijjer killing 2023 and India-Canada relations

  Kanishka bombing 1985, Nijjer killing 2023 and India-Canada relations Ground Zero Jagtar Singh Chandigarh, June 23: Yet another spanner hit the India-Canada relationship when members of the Canada’s House of Commons on June 18 last stood up to pay tributes with one minute’s silence to Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on his first death anniversary. India reacted very strongly with the call for memorial service “as a show of solidarity against terrorism” on June 23, the anniversary of the horrible bombing of Air India Kanishka in 1985 in which 329 people as the airliner exploded mid-air near the Irish coast. Of course, the Kanishka bombing anniversary must be observed to remind the posterity of this barbarity. Years later, it came to be known that design was not to kill by targeting Kanishka but hit India economically. The design went disastrously wrong as the Air India 747 exploded mid-air. The two developments, however, are both related and also un-related. India’s p
Post a Comment
Read more

Kanishka anniversary, Nijjer narrative and impact on India-Canada relations (Punjabi story)

  ਕਨਿਸ਼ਕਾ ਬੰਬ ਕਾਂਡ 1985- ਨਿੱਝਰ ਦਾ ਕਤਲ ਅਤੇ ਕੈਨੇਡਾ-ਭਾਰਤ ਸੰਬੰਧ Ground Zero Jagtar Singh   ਕੈਨੇਡਾ ਦੀ ਪਾਰਲੀਮੈਂਟ ਵੱਲੋਂ   ਸਿੱਖ ਜੁਝਾਰੂ ਹਰਦੀਪ ਸਿੰਘ ਨਿੱਝਰ ਨੂੰ ਉਸਦੀ ਬਰਸੀ ਮੌਕੇ 18 ਜੂਨ ਨੂੰ ਇੱਕ ਮਿੰਟ ਦਾ ਮੋਨ ਧਾਰ ਕੇ ਸ਼ਰਧਾਂਜਲੀ ਦੇਣ ਬਾਅਦ ਭਾਰਤ-ਕੈਨੇਡਾ ਦੇ ਰਿਸ਼ਤਿਆਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਕੁੜੱਤਣ   ਹੋਰ ਵੱਧ ਗਈ ਹੈ। ਸਮੱਸਿਆ ਇਹ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਭਾਈ ਨਿੱਝਰ ਨੂੰ ਹਿੰਦੁਸਤਾਨ ਦੀ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਨੇ ਦਹਿਸ਼ਤਗਰਦ ਐਲਾਨ ਰੱਖਿਆ ਹੈ। ਉਸਨੂੰ ਸਰੀ ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਦੇ ਬਾਹਰ ਪਿੱਛਲੇ ਸਾਲ ਗੋਲੀਆਂ   ਮਾਰ ਕੇ ਕਤਲ ਕਰ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਸੀ।     ਕੈਨੇਡਾ ਦੇ ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨ ਮੰਤਰੀ ਜਸਟਿਨ ਟਰੂਡੋ ਨੇ 18 ਸਤੰਬਰ ਨੂੰ ਆਪਣੇ ਮੁਲਕ ਦੀ ਪਾਰਲੀਮੈਂਟ ਵਿੱਚ ਬੋਲਦਿਆਂ ਭਾਰਤੀ ਏਜੰਸੀਆਂ ਦਾ ਨਿੱਝਰ ਦੇ ਕਤਲ ਵਿੱਚ ਹੱਥ ਹੋਣ ਦਾ ਸੰਕੇਤ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਸੀ।   ਭਾਈ ਨਿੱਝਰ , ਸਿੱਖਸ ਫਾਰ ਜਸਟਿਸ ਦੀ ਰੈਫਰੈਡਮ 2020 ਮੁਹਿੰਮ ਦਾ ਕੈਨੇਡਾ ਵਿੱਚ ਚੇਹਰਾ ਸੀ।   ਕੈਨੇਡਾ ਦੀ ਪਾਰਲੀਮੈਂਟ ਵੱਲੋਂ ਨਿੱਝਰ ਨੂੰ ਸ਼ਰਧਾਂਜਲੀ ਦੇਣ ਤੋ ਫੌਰੀ ਬਾਅਦ ਭਾਰਤੀ ਦੂਤਾਵਾਸ ਦੇ ਅਧਿਕਾਰੀ ਨੇ ਕਨਿਸ਼ਕਾ ਕਾਂਡ ਦੀ 23 ਜੂਨ ਨੂੰ ਵਰ੍ਹੇਗੰਢ ਮੌਕੇ ਮਾਰੇ ਗਏ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਸ਼ਰਧਾਂਜਲੀ ਦੇਣ ਲਈ ਸਮਾਗਮ ਕਰਨ ਦਾ ਐਲਾਨ ਕਰ ਦਿੱਤਾ।   ਇਸ ਜਹਾਜ ਕਾਂਡ ਵਿੱਚ ਬੱਬਰ ਖਾਲਸਾ ਦੇ ਜੁਝਾਰੂ ਤਲਵਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਪਰਮਾਰ ਤੇ ਉਸਦੇ ਸਾਥੀਆਂ ਦਾ ਨਾਮ ਸਾਹਮਣੇ ਆਇਆ ਸੀ। ਇਸ ਕਾਂਡ   ਨੂੰ ਸਿੱਖ ਜੁਝ
Post a Comment
Read more