Explaining the tensions arising once again in Punjab, India
Jazmin Singh Kaur, Contributor
The Indian government has once again been targeting the Sikh population that lives in India. As the death anniversary of the assassinated Sikh musician Sidhu Moosewala closely approaches, and the 2023 G20 Summit is being held in India, tensions arise between the government and the Sikh community.
On March 18, 2023, according to Baaz News, the government enforced internet shutdowns, search operations, police blockades and deployment of paramilitary resources within the state of Punjab. Amritpal Singh and other members of Waris Punjab De (WDP) have been detained and their whereabouts are still unknown. Numerous Sikh activists are being subjected to unlawful house detentions and police harassment. According to Baaz News, 150 people have been arrested at the time of writing but have not been charged. There are also many videos all over Instagram of protesters being violently attacked and detained.
The Reflector has interviewed a member of the Sikh Community here in Calgary. For safety reasons as they have family back in India that could be at risk, he will be named under the pseudonym Ben.
The Miri Piri Foundation, a Calgary non-profit, organized a last-minute protest on March 18 for March 19. As per Ben, even with only one day of notice, around 150 to 200 people came. Another protest happened on March 26 at City Hall with a great turnout again according to a Sikh community member, Avneet Kaur, who attended. Through this, they want to raise more awareness and let the people that live in Calgary know about the injustices going on in India. A similar protest from Sikhs in Italy also took place last March 27, according to the Sikh Press Association.
Waris Punjab De (WDP) or the Heirs of Punjab was founded by Deep Sidhu. He had a degree in law and worked for big law firms for a while until he started his career as a Bollywood actor. When the farmer’s protest was happening in Punjab back in 2020, he was one of the main Sikh activists there. When he started speaking up against the government he was assassinated. According to Ben, the government made it look like Sidhu died in a car crash. Ben said that none of the things made sense and they cleaned up the scene of evidence very fast and no investigation was done.
Ben tells us more about Amritpal Singh— he was born and raised in India and after he finished Grade 12, his family sent him to Dubai to work in the family business. After Deep Sidhu passed away, Amritpal Singh became the leader of Waris Punjab De and has been spreading the word about what Sikhs stand for, the history, the warrior spirit, and what Sikh people in the past died for. Ben states that the drug problem in India is state-funded so the government makes a huge income from this. Amritpal took it into his own hands to try to solve the drug problem after he saw that the government wasn’t doing anything about this dire situation in Punjab and how hundreds of young adults were dying from overdoses. Ben also mentions to us that Singh started the Gur Bhai Movement (The Brothers of the Guru Movement) and created two centers where addicts could come and get treatment for free and let go of their addiction. As per Ben, This really made him get hate and death threats from the drug mafia, the government, and the gang lord who aren’t making any money now.
Amritpal Singh also started talking about reverse migration which is the idea that Sikhs who migrated from India to other countries for better opportunities come back. Ben states that the Indian government’s plan was for Punjabi people to migrate outside of their country was so that they could bring in people from other states and create a majority of people that follow their values instead of the Punjabi values. So you have Amritpal Singh fighting against two of the major problems in Punjab, mass migration and then drug problems. The government didn’t like this and neither did the gang lords, and the people making money and making a profit off of these problems.
When asked about how the Indian media portrayed Amritpal Singh, Ben said that “There’s been no case of him shooting anyone or anything like that. He’s not a terrorist. He preaches peacefully. And, if anyone around him in his group, maybe like tries to do something wrong or maybe gives a statement that would hurt someone or stuff like that, he’s always against that”.
Amritpal Singh has received a great deal of support from Sikhs all over the world since taking the helm of WPD last year. India refused Amritpal Singh’s repeated appeals to participate in talks. Instead, according to CBC News, Singh met the force against him through arbitrary detentions, internet blackouts, and the violation of his civil liberties by the Indian government. Currently, Sidhu is still on the run.
The Reflector has interviewed a member of the Sikh Community here in Calgary. As they have family back in India, for safety reasons he will be named under the pseudonym Ben.
Ben said that all the community knows is that Singh was kidnapped on his way to visit Sidhu Moosewala’s parents.
Ben mentioned how the Indian government and the police force have been planning his kidnapping for more than three months. According to The Wire, police are cracking down on lawyers and journalists.
A longstanding history of conflict
In the book, Operation Blue Star: The True Story, Lt. Gen. K.S. Brar talks about what happened in 1984. In June, the Indian Army led a ten-day siege on Sri Harmandir Sahib (the Golden Temple), the most sacred site of Sikhs, desecrating the place of worship with tanks and killing thousands of Sikhs including children. In November of 1984, Indian politicians mobilized mobs and slaughtered more than 10,000 Sikhs in Delhi in response to the assassination of Indra Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards. The Indian Police were instructed to kidnap Sikh youth, kill them, and stage encounters over the course of the next ten years, according to the World Sikh Organization of Canada.
Calgarian-Sikhs react
The Miri Piri Foundation, a Calgary non-profit, organized a last-minute protest on March 18 for the next day. As per Ben, even with only one day of notice, around 150 to 200 people came. Another protest happened on March 26 at City Hall with a great turnout again according to a Sikh community member, Avneet Kaur, who attended. Through this, they want to raise more awareness and let Calgarians know about the injustices going on in India. A similar protest from Sikhs in Italy also took place last March 27, according to the Sikh Press Association.
Ben tells The Reflector that Sikhs are writing to their elected government officials and asking them to bring this up in the House of Commons. He also said that many Sikhs are sending money to their families back in India, although with the internet ban in place, families here are worried about what might be happening to their kin back home.
The Reflector asked Ben about his thoughts on the current situation in Punjab. “This is an attack against civil human rights. Just basic human rights that people deserve. If anyone has any connections with any human rights organizations, if they can help us get in contact with them or if they can contact them, ask them to look into what is going on in India, that would really help.”
Former Ontario MLA Gurratan Singh said in a TikTok video that the community believes it is important for everyone to understand what is actually happening in Punjab right now. Singh also mentions that there has been a great deal of media manipulation by the Indian government to make them look good and defame Amritpal Singh.
According to CBC News, notable Sikh-Canadians such as poet Rupi Kaur and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s Twitter accounts are banned in the Indian lockdown.
Amritpal Singh said in a Q&A on the Youtube Channel Kotha Guru, “Punjab is a source of energy for all Sikhs in the entire world and that is always attacked the most.”
He adds that Sikhs in Punjab want proper rights and for the Indian government to treat them normally like they do for the rest of the people. Singh said what they have been fighting for is just equality, and even that is too much for the Indian government. This simple task they can not do, he adds.
