Lacking vocal support in Punjab, globalized Khalistan narrative continues to concern India

 

Lacking vocal support in Punjab, globalized Khalistan narrative continues to concern India

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

Chandigarh: One of the stories associated with sidelines of G20 front-paged by the media is the meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau whose focus was intensified activities of the secessionists who happen to be migrants of Indian origin.

In simple and straight terms, the issue was the activities of those demanding setting up of Khalistan in Indian Punjab.

Neither the demand for Khalistan nor the narrative between India and Canada  is new.

Thousands of people died in Punjab including innocents and hundreds of those killed by security forces in fake encounters in the armed struggle that got triggered with the gunning down of Nirankari chief Gurbachan Singh on April 24, 1980 in Delhi by then unknown ordinary Sikh Ranjit Singh accompanied by Kabul Singh from Damdami Taksal. This was to avenge the killing of 13 Sikh devotees in clash with the Nirankaris in Amritsar on April 13, 1978 after judiciary failed to deliver justice and acquitted all the accused in early January 1980 and the Punjab government decided not to appeal to the higher judiciary against this verdict. While the Punjab government closed this file with the decision not to go in for appeal, yet another file got opened.

That file is still to be closed despite politics of violence having phased out through police methods with last major killing being that of Chief Minister Beant Singh on August 31, 1995.

It is pertinent to go into this background as the Khalistan narrative is rooted in this very discourse.

The Khalistan narrative had hit the headlines for the first time when banner headline appeared in the paper: “Khalistan men hijack plane to Lahore”. The plane was hijacked by young activists of the 1978-born Dal Khalsa on September 29, 1981 in protest against arrest of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale earlier on September 20, 1981 in the case of assassination of Jalandhar based news paper owner-editor Lala Jagat Narain. Sant Bhindranwale subsequently emerged as the icon of the Sikh radical struggle and his memorial is in the Darbar Sahib complex.

The demand for Khalistan was formally raised by Panthic Committee representing radicals on April 29, 1986 but ironically, those members of that 5-member panel never met again.

Now the Dal Khalsa confines itself to parliamentary methods.

The supporters of the Khalistan narrative are now mainly in Canada, USA, UK and other European countries and also Australia. It is the Sikh Diaspora that has been active.

Issue is not as to the strength of those advocating this demand but the narrative itself.

The activities of the Khalistanis especially in Canada have been of concern to India.

Times of India has reported on September 11 in front page news:

“India-Canada ties threaten to go into freefall because of growing divergence between the two sides over the unchecked Khalistan extremism in the North American country. This was evident on Sunday when PM Narendra Modi told his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau that there could not be progress in India-Canada ties without trust and mutual respect”.

The other part of the conversation relating to this discourse is equally important:

“Canadian PM later told that his country would always defend freedom of expression, freedom of conscience and freedom of peaceful protest, while acting against hatred, and that he raised the issue of “foreign interference” with Modi.”

The Sikh Diaspora yesterday participated in non-binding referendum in mini-Punjab that is Surrey called by Sikhs for Justice (banned in India) on Khalistan and going by the media reports, the queue was more than a kilometer long.

The polling was held in the gurdwara where Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjer was gunned down provoking anger among the Sikh Diaspora.

The Sikhs for Justice got more attention when India started taking notice of its activities confined mainly to issuing video statements by Chandigarh-educated but US-based Gurpatwant Pannu who claims to be its legal adviser.

Here is one dimension as to why the Khalistan narrative not only continues to survive but is now also proliferating.

A story appeared in the media on September 9 from Mohali relating to the court proceedings. It was about the CBI court convicting some retired policemen in the case of a fake encounter. The case goes back to 1992. The place of occurrence was Thathian village near Sathiala in Amritsar district.

The news report stated: “Nearly 31 years after three persons were killed in a fake encounter in Amritsar, the special court of RK Gupta on Friday held the cops guilty and convicted three former police officers.”

This is how the peace was restored. It was peace of the graveyard.

The government at one time admitted to cremation of hundreds of unidentified bodies probed by human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra from only three cremation grounds in Amritsar district. Khalra himself came on the list of missing persons.

Punjab seeks justice.

The Akali Dal government formed in 1997 backtracked from its promise of ordering probe, rather it obstructed probe.

That narrative needs closure.

Closure is always the first step towards tempering down the narratives rooted in such struggles.

This issue is not as to how many Sikhs were killed or how many Hindus became the victims.

The initiative has to come from the government.

Entire record pertaining to Operation Bluestar, code-name for army attack on Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in June 1984 should be declassified.

Punjab, once the most advanced state, continues to battle with issues of survival.

Punjabi Diaspora maintains strong bond with motherland.