A scuffle broke out between the Indian diaspora and Khalistan supporters in Australia during a referendum called by the banned Sikhs For Justice for the creation of an independent Sikh state, local media reported. The brief fracas broke out at 4.30 p.m. on Sunday after a group of pro-India supporters waving national flags arrived at the voting site in Federation Square, Melbourne, The Age reported.
The Victoria Police, which used pepper spray to quell the protests, said two men, aged 34 and 39, were arrested and issued a penalty notice for their riotous behaviour. In several videos posted on Twitter, Khalistan supporters were seen attacking Indians with sticks in broad daylight. They were also seen snatching and damaging the Indian Tricolour.
Pro-#Khalistan Forces in #Australia Attack Indians, Deface #Tricolour on CameraSandeep Dhankar, an Eyewitness tells how the event unfolded in an #Exclusive conversation with @siddhantvm | @toyasingh pic.twitter.com/RoFr6M0QcP
— News18 (@CNNnews18) January 30, 2023
Reacting to the videos, BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa tweeted: “I strongly condemn anti India activities by pro Khalistani in Australia. Anti-social elements that are trying to disrupt the peace & harmony of the country with these activities, must be dealt with strongly and culprits must be brought to books."
Meanwhile, Delhi Police’s Special Cell on Sunday arrested two men in connection with alleged “anti-national" and “Khalistan-related graffiti" that appeared on walls in areas of west Delhi on January 19, ahead of Republic Day, officials said.
The walls were painted with slogans like “Khalistan Zindabad", “SFJ", “1984", “Punjab Banega Khalistan", “Vote for Khalistan" and “Referendum 2020" at various locations in Vikaspuri, Janakpuri, Paschim Vihar, Peeragarhi, Meera Bagh and adjoining parts in west Delhi, they said.
The accused — Vikram Singh (29), a resident of Tilak Nagar, and Balram Singh (34), hailing from Bharatpur in Rajasthan — were tasked to paint “pro-Khalistani" slogans in western part of Delhi in lieu of Rs 2 lakh and further lucrative offers in future, a senior police officer said. However, they were paid only Rs 2,000 after the act, he added.
So, who are Khalistanis and what is the Khalistani movement?
The Khalistan movement is a Sikh separatist movement that seeks to establish a sovereign state in the Punjab region called Khalistan (‘Land of the Khalsa’), according to reports.
The proposed state would be made up of land that currently forms Punjab, India and Punjab, Pakistan, with Lahore as its capital, and would be located in the past geographical region of Punjab, where the Khalsa Empire was once established.
Since the separatist movement gained traction in the 1980s, Khalistan’s territorial ambitions have included Chandigarh, sections of Indian Punjab, including the entirety of North India, and some parts of western India.
How It Started
Gur Gobind Singh’s declaration of the Khalsa in 1699, and the religio-political vision that accompanied it, fueled the Sikh imagination with the belief that it was their God-given right to rule Punjab, Britannica explains in its report on how the Khalistani movement started.
Sikh forces captured Sirhind, the most powerful Mughal administrative centre between Delhi and Lahore, in 1710, led by Band Singh Bahdur, and established a capital in nearby Mukhlispur (“City of the Purified"). They minted coins, created an official seal, and issued letters of command invoking God and the Gurs’ authority. At the time, the belief that “the Khalsas shall rule" was formally added to Sikh liturgical prayer, the report said.
Although the ‘Khalsa Raj’ under Band Singh was short-lived, the concept was realised in the early 19th century in the form of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s kingdom (1780–1839). Though the Khalsa Raj’s subsequent rapid decline and eventual loss to the British (1849) was a painful experience, it did not extinguish many Sikhs’ hope that the Khalsa Raj would return in some form.
The concept of an independent Sikh state was prominent in the lengthy negotiations that preceded the partition of Punjab in 1947. The Sikh population’s numerical weakness in comparison to other residents of Punjab rendered this an unviable proposition, but it has reappeared in various forms since, the report explains.
For a decade in the 1970s and 1980s, a violent secessionist movement to create Khalistan paralysed the Punjab. And it reached its pinnacle in the late 1990s, after which the insurgency petered out and the movement failed to achieve its goal for a variety of reasons, including a heavy police crackdown on separatists, factional infighting, and disillusionment.
There is some support within India and among the Sikh diaspora, with annual protests in memory of those killed during Operation Blue Star.
Police in Punjab arrested several militant groups in early 2018. Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh claimed that recent extremism is being supported by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and “Khalistani sympathisers" in Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
What is Referendum 2020
The unofficial “referendum" is a voting exercise organised across several countries by the US-based Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) organisation, which was banned in India in 2019 for “espousing secessionism and militant activities".
The referendum seeks to forge an agreement among Sikh communities to establish Khalistan, a separate homeland within India. It is generally proposed that this be accomplished by carving out the Indian state of Punjab, the country’s only Sikh-majority state. The campaign group says it would then approach the UN and other international human rights bodies with the demand to re-establish “Punjab as a nation state".
The SFJ was founded in 2007 and is led by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Panjab University law graduate who works as an attorney in the United States, according to a report by the Independent.
The group first announced in 2018 that it would hold an unofficial voting exercise, at the time dubbed “Referendum 2020", across several countries with sizeable Sikh diasporas, with the aim to “liberate Punjab from Indian occupation".
“The SFJ announced in its London Declaration [in August 2018] the first ever non-binding referendum among the global Sikh community on the question of secession from India and re-establishing Punjab as an independent country," according to the SFJ website.
It stated that the referendum would be held in Punjab, as well as major cities in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Kenya, and the Middle East.
According to Indian authorities in Punjab, SFJ and the “Referendum 2020" campaign are being promoted and funded in Pakistan in order to destabilise India. As evidence, intelligence agencies in India have stated that the SFJ website shares its domain with a website based in Karachi.
With inputs from IANS
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