Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Oct 9: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday reiterated that India strongly condemns all anti-India activities amid reports that a so-called ‘Khalistan referendum’ is planned in Canada.
“We strongly condemn all anti-India activities,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a bi-weekly media briefing in New Delhi while responding to a question about the proposed event.
The remarks came amid reports that the banned radical outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) plans to hold a so-called Khalistan referendum in Edmonton, Canada, on October 18.
In August, a report highlighted terrorist and SFJ founder Gurpatwant Singh Pannun’s announcement about plans to form a Khalistan Army and a Sikh Homeland Security force. The report described videos showing Sikh men training with semi-automatic rifles on Canadian soil as deeply alarming, warning that such activities could have catastrophic consequences for the Sikh community itself.
According to a report in ‘Khalsa Vox’, Pannun released a video urging Sikhs in the diaspora to participate in a so-called Khalistan “Referendum” in Indianapolis, the capital of the US state of Indiana. He also floated the idea of establishing a “Sikh Homeland Security” force, or Khalistan Army.
“These are not abstract political arguments. They are calculated provocations aimed at restless young men already navigating the pressures of migration, identity, and easy money. The result is visible and ugly: a small minority of Sikh youth in the United States and Canada drifting into drugs, illegal guns, and gang life, damaging their own communities and the cities that host them,” the report stated.
“Pannun’s messaging does not create every troubled youth, but it supplies a ready-made narrative that romanticizes defiance and externalizes every failure onto India. When a young man already exposed to street culture hears that the real war is against the Indian state and that arming or ‘securing’ the community is legitimate, the leap from online rhetoric to real weapons becomes shorter,” it added.
The report further stated that Canadian intelligence had previously identified Khalistani extremists as a national security concern. It also argued that the pattern of inflammatory videos followed by displays of force was not coincidental.