Opinion Tavleen Singh writes: India’s Canadian problem and worries about revival of the Khalistan myth

Of course, this is against the laws that govern international relations but let us not pretend that if after 26/11 India had managed to bump off evil men like Hafiz Saeed in their sanctuaries in Pakistan nobody would have shed a tear.

It is against this backdrop that we should examine the Canadian Prime Minister’s charge last week that Indian intelligence agencies were responsible for the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil. (File Photo)

Tavleen Singh

September 25, 2023 08:34 AM IST First published on: Sep 24, 2023 at 07:10 AM IST

Nothing puzzles me more about Narendra Modi’s policies than why he has revived the myth of Khalistan. Why has his government been so determined to revive this phantom secessionist movement that senior ministers called the farmers long agitation against the farm laws a Khalistani plot? When Canadian Sikhs raise Khalistan flags and take out offensive parades, why is there panic in Delhi’s highest echelons of political power? It is against this backdrop that we should examine the Canadian Prime Minister’s charge last week that Indian intelligence agencies were responsible for the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil.

It is a very serious charge and when viewed from an Indian point of vantage, there is almost a sense of pride that our usually flat-footed intelligence agencies have developed assets that can pull off a Mossad type killing.

Of course, this is against the laws that govern international relations but let us not pretend that if after 26/11 India had managed to bump off evil men like Hafiz Saeed in their sanctuaries in Pakistan nobody would have shed a tear.

Personally, I was deeply upset that the monsters we released in exchange for the passengers of IC 814 were not killed by our agents as soon as their vehicle crossed from Kandahar into Pakistan. I remember asking a minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government why this did not happen, and he admitted sheepishly that we did not have the ‘assets’ to do this. So, if we have them now then it is no bad thing, and we should use them next door against jihadi terrorists. Not in Canada. If Israel can get away with killing its enemies in foreign countries, then why not us.

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What worries me much more is the revival of the Khalistan myth. If there is one story that I have followed closely in long years in journalism, it is the Punjab story also called the Khalistan story. So, trust me when I tell you that there is no support for Khalistan among the Sikhs of India and there never has been. Not at the height of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s reign of terror did he succeed in creating a mass movement for secession. He had a network of spies that was so efficient that if any Sikh dared speak against him, word would reach the Golden Temple immediately and he never hesitated to identify and punish Sikhs who did not support his terrorist ideas.

Some Sikhs rallied willingly to his cause out of a sense of injustice that has too long a history to repeat here. What is worth remembering, time and time again, is that the Khalsa was created by Guru Govind Singh with the specific purpose of fighting the repression of the Moghul Emperor.

What is worth remembering is that the army he built was an army of Hindus and that he was a Hindu himself. But once the Khalsa came to be, what was ingrained into his very genes was that it was his duty to fight against tyranny and subjugation. You only need to listen carefully to any ‘ardas’ in a gurudwara to know this. When some misguided Sikhs were convinced that Indira Gandhi needed to be killed to avenge Operation Bluestar, it was because they believed it was their religious duty.

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Let us return then to Canada and that deeply repugnant parade that celebrated her assassination recently. It was meant to remind Sikhs in India of old wounds and it failed. Amritpal Singh and his fellow travelers returned to Punjab to do the same thing and they failed. Had there been even the smallest support for this Bhindranwale lookalike, his arrest would have caused huge ripples in Punjab. But he has vanished into some distant jail cell and there has not been a single major protest.

This does not mean that there is no support for Khalistan among Canadian Sikhs. This does not mean that the men who wave Khalsa flags when they burn Indian embassies and consulates in western cities do not have financial support from Pakistan’s military rulers. They do, just as Bhindranwale had support in that long ago time. The point I am making is that if we want to use our intelligence agencies to make trouble on foreign soil, it should be next door, not in faraway Canada. Or in the Bahamas. Remember that goofy attempt to kidnap Mehul Choksi? If Pakistan is behind Canadian Khalistanis, then it is time to support the secessionist movement in Baluchistan openly.

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It is also time to define who is a terrorist and who is not. Is Monu Manesar a terrorist or a holy warrior? Are the vigilantes who kill Muslims in the name of saving cows terrorists or holy warriors? Our Prime Minister may not like to admit this, but he must know in his heart that his silence after every lynching has created a sense of injustice not just among Muslims but among Sikhs. This is what he should be addressing urgently.

When the Indian state is seen to be unjust there will be unrest not just in Punjab and Kashmir but across India, and among Muslims and Sikhs in the Indian diaspora. It is this that we need to worry about. Not the possibilities of Khalistan. There is too much official hysteria over the ‘revival’ of this myth. Too little about why minority communities have become so alienated.