Referendum for Khalistan

EDITORIAL: On October 31, 1984 the then prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi, was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards for ordering the military action 'Operation Blue Star' to suppress the Sikh 'secessionist' movement. Thirty-seven years on, thousands of Sikhs from across the United Kingdom (UK) took part in a referendum for the state of Khalistan. The referendum took place under the supervision and monitoring of a nonaligned panel of direct democracy experts named Punjab Referendum Commission at the request of US-based Sikhs for Justice (SFJ). Sikhs from more than 100 gurdwaras were ferried to London from various parts of the UK through coaches as voting lasted till late in the evening. Referendums for Khalistan will also take place in the United States, Canada, Australia and India's Punjab state. Piqued by the move, the Indian government had tried hard to forestall the referendum. It even sent a dossier to British government, claiming that Pakistan is behind the referendum for an independent Sikh homeland. This is a peaceful non-binding referendum to garner support for creation of Khalistan state and its outcome would be used by the Sikh community to request the United Nations to help establish an independent Sikh state in India. A week before the referendum, the SFJ had released a new map of India depicting not just Punjab but also Haryana and Himachal Pradesh states of India as parts of Khalistan. According to that map, several districts of India's Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh states are also part of Khalistan.

The Sikhs' struggle for an independent homeland is long and tenacious, some of it written in blood. What had been simmering in low heat for months and years was now an open battle for creation of Khalistan not only in India but all over the world by the Sikh diaspora. More such referendums are on the way. It is also important to note that the Sikh farming community has been protesting against the unreasonable price structure of food commodities for over a year. The union government, however, is treating their protest with sheer contempt, prompting former minister Surjit Kumar Jyani, for example, to 'rebel' against his own party, the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). According to him, the BJP government is victimizing farmers and not listening to them in their protest against central farm laws. He has severely criticised prime minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda for not reaching out to farmers. Be that as it may, it is now quite clear that a great majority of Sikh people has realized that only through the creation of an independent state called Khalistan can they successfully bring to an end systematic persecutions and continuous exploitation that they have been facing at the hands of successive Indian governments since the Partition of subcontinent.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021