CALGARY, CANADA: Pro-Khalistan Sikhs For Justice leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun has accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of waging a hate campaign against Sikhs directly and through proxies, as tensions rose between Indian and Canadian Sikhs ahead of the Khalistan referendum vote in Calgary over the weekend.
The Indian government has expressed nervousness just hours before the Khalistan referendum vote in the Canadian city, which will bring together thousands of pro-Khalistan Sikhs to vote on the issue of separating Punjab from India.
The pro-Khalistan Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) are organizing the Khalistan referendum vote at Calgary's City Square. The Sikhs have been holding large-scale car rallies and a poster campaign locally to drum up support for the event.
Tensions have risen as Sikhs accused Hindutva supporters of vandalising Khalistan referendum posters and in Alberta's capital Edmonton, a Hindu temple was attacked with graffiti by unknown men, leading to a war of words between SFJ leader and India's most wanted man Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on one side and the Indian government and pro-BJP Canadian MP on the other.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who survived an assassination plot by the Indian state last year, has criticised pro-India Canadian MP Chandra Arya for attacking Sikhs.
“When a democracy adopts different criteria to measure or implement the rule of law and freedom of expression, it only exposes its double standards. We expect Canada to take action against anti-India elements who have repeatedly threatened Indian leaders, institutions, airlines and diplomats with violence,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during the weekly press briefing.
“We would like to see more forceful and equally serious action against the threats we face,” he added.
“Over the past few years, Hindu temples in the Greater Toronto Area, British Columbia and elsewhere in Canada have been vandalized with hate graffiti. Last year, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun of Sikhs for Justice publicly called for Hindus to return to India,” Canadian MP Chandra Arya wrote on X on July 23.
“Khalistani supporters in Brampton and Vancouver publicly celebrated the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and displayed images of lethal weapons. As I have always said, Khalistani extremists seem to get away with their public rhetoric of hate and violence.”
Responding to MP Arya's remarks provoking violence against pro-Khalistan Sikhs in Canada, Sikhs For Justice General Counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun responded by stating that “MP Arya should return to his homeland as on the orders of his boss Indian PM Modi, Arya is running a hate campaign against Sikhs and has effectively abandoned his allegiance to Canada.”
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said: “Every action and word of MP Arya resonates with the Hindu supremacist Modi regime, which is responsible for the murder of Shaheed Nijjar and the transnational repression against Sikhs in Canada.”
Demanding Arya’s disqualification as a Canadian MP, Pannun said: “Arya is a supporter of Modi’s Hindutva ideology, which promotes the use of violence to suppress dissenting political opinion, which is in direct conflict with the fundamental principles of Canadian democracy enshrined in the Bill of Rights. The Khalistan referendum vote on July 28 in Calgary is dedicated to a pro-Khalistan Canadian Sikh who, following Canadian values, achieved martyrdom in Punjab while fighting against Indian injustice.”
Last year, Pannun's close aide and leader of the Khalistan referendum in Canada, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was assassinated on Canadian soil by Indian secret service agents. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has placed the blame squarely on India.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was shot dead outside the main Sikh temple in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a significant Sikh population. Nijjar was the chief coordinator of the Khalistan referendum campaign in Canada. Nijjar, Pannun, UK-based Paramjeet Singh Pamma and others were designated terrorists by the Indian government in 2020. Nijjar was also the president of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in British Columbia, the largest Gurdwara in Canada.
The Khalistan referendum voting campaign is being organised under the supervision of the independent Punjab Referendum Commission (PRC), which will announce the results once all phases are completed.
Voting began on October 31, 2021 from London, UK, and has so far been held in several countries and cities in the UK; Geneva, Switzerland; Paris (France); Rome and Milan (Italy); the Australian cities of Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney; the US city of Houston; the Canadian cities of Brampton, Mississauga, Malton (Ontario); Vancouver (British Columbia) and now Calgary.
