With India pausing trade talks with Canada, Khalistan narrative assume new dimension

 

With India pausing trade talks with Canada, Khalistan narrative assume new dimension

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

The decades old Khalistan narrative relating to an independent Sikh state has, for the first time, impacted India’s international relations. Pakistan is in different category.

Going by the media reports, India has suspended trade talks with Canada, the country that is the most sought after by the youth from Punjab, the region where the issue of Khalistan is the most vibrant.

Canada, as per these reports, has “indefinitely postponed a trade mission to India scheduled for October”.

Though no direct reference has been made, tension has escalated between the two countries on the issue of Khalistan.

Earlier, India has been accusing neighbouring Pakistan for aiding and abetting Sikh separatists in this part of Punjab. But one can’t choose a neighbour.

However, Canada is not a neighbour and hence is in a different category.

But then Indian settlers abroad being active in affairs of their native country is nothing new.

It is pertinent to recall the formation of Ghadr Party on the East Coast of USA with Stockton as the centre. The first settlers had landed in Vancouver on East Coast of Canada who subsequently crossed over to USA in the neighbourhood to form the Ghadr Party in 1912. Ghadr Party was the first formation to raise the slogan of complete freedom, years before the Congress adopted resolution to this effect in 1929. The Ghadr Party was mainly Punjab centric. These activists returned to Punjab in hundreds to organize freedom struggle. Many of them were hanged while score of others were sentenced to Kalapani.

As such, Diaspora getting active is not new. Only the political issue is now different.

Although first raised by the Sikh settlers in England in 1970 and subsequently taken up by medical practitioner of Tanda Dr. Jagjit Singh Chohan who became its poster boy for some years, the sovereign Sikh state was demanded in Punjab by Dal Khalsa that had come up as an organization of politically aspiring young Sikhs on August 6, 1978 in Chandigarh.

Radical Sikh leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale who symbolizes the Sikh armed struggle of nineteen eighties never formally raised this demand as he confined himself to the Anandpur Sahib Resolution of 1973 on autonomy adopted by the Shiromani Akali Dal. He was killed in army attack on Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in June 1984.

Issue here is not the history of this demand but reference to its origin is pertinent in the present context of this issue having been globalized.

But then it can’t be overlooked that the militant struggle that got triggered with the gunning down of Nirankari chief Gurbachan Singh on April 24, 1980 subsequently witnessed Operation Bluestar, code name for unprecedented in free India army attack on Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex to flush out Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed associates in June 1984. The situation only deteriorated. Khalistan demand was formally raised by these regrouped armed activists on April 29, 1986. It is a different issue that the 5-member Panthic Committee that raised this demand from Akal Takht never met again.

By the time this armed struggle petered out in 1995 with last major killing being that of chief minister Beant Singh, the death count had gone up to about more than 35,000.

Many of these people or their next of kin managed to settle abroad.

Some of their leaders took shelter in Pakistan.

Dal Khalsa and Akali Dal (Amritsar) led by Member of Parliament Simranjit Singh Mann have been keeping the issue alive in the democratic domain  in Indian Punjab.

Canada is not the only fertile soil for the Sikh activists. They are carrying on their activities by way of taking out processions and organizing rallies in USA, UK, Australia, Italy and Germany too.

However, it is Canada that is now being portrayed as the main bad guy.

The main overseas organization active on this issue is the USA based Sikhs for Justice led by clean-shaven Gurpatwant Singh Pannu as its legal adviser. He is a law graduate of Panjab University, Chandigarh. It is this body to whose activities India has been objecting to and several cases have been registered against Pannu in India. This activity is mainly organizing non-binding Khalistan referendum.

This activity is confined mainly to mobilizing Sikhs in support of this demand and nothing more.

The latest such referendum was organized in Surrey in Canada. The killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjer in front of a gurdwara in this city had earlier angered the Sikhs all over.

Intriguingly, nothing is known whether India has sought Pannu’s extradition so far or not for which USA would have to be approached.

However, the basic issue is that of the Khalistan narrative not phasing out despite the militant struggle having been curbed.

Canada has extended the logic that the country allows such activities in democratic domain.

Countries like UK and Canada have constitutional provisions for referendum. Quebec and Scotland in Canada and UK respectively decided their destiny through referendum.

What is significant in case of Khalistan narrative is that there is little activity in Punjab in India but the issue is alive at the global level.

India putting pause on trade talks with India is evidence of this narrative entering a new phase.

It is time to go into the roots to deal with the situation with instruments of political dynamics.

 AK-47 has failed to kill the idea of Khalistan. The bullet can’t kill an idea.