How denial of visas to Khalistan supporters is a good idea

This week a report by Canadian news outlet Global News has made very interesting claims that the Indian government has started restricting visa access to Khalistan sympathisers, making it difficult for them to visit India. Due to this, many such elements who had migrated from India in the past but still retain close ties of business or kinship in the country are going through a harrowing time.

As per the report, India is now either straightaway denying visas to those individuals who harbour sympathy for Khalistanis or it is asking them to write a letter professing respect for India’s territorial integrity as well as denounce support for Khalistan separatism. Interestingly, the report claims that those individuals who have furnished information related to the Khalistan menace have been even rewarded with a much-facilitated visa, showing that India has finally mastered a carrot-and-stick policy against Khalistanis in the interest of its national security.

The report, which was published on Wednesday, narrates the case of Bikramjit Singh Sandhar, former president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurudwara in Surrey, British Columbia. It claims that while Sandhar was first denied a visa in 2016 due to his support of the Khalistan movement, later he was asked to sign a letter declaring his renunciation from the K-project. In addition to Sandhar, certain other members of the Sikh diaspora have also been asked to sign similar letters in return for Indian visas.

As per the report, all the people who have been denied visas by India so far are influential leaders in Canada who have used their position of prominence to push forward the agenda of Khalistanis. In fact, Sandhar is also not new to the limelight, as he has often been projected by the Canadian media as an orthodox Sikh leader since he first rose to the powerful position of Guru Nanak Gurudwara head in 2009.

Even this Gurudwara, over which he has presided in the past, is a very controversial one, with some sources claiming that it was run by slain Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Just recently, four notorious Khalistanis were felicitated by the same Gurudwara, including the mastermind of the 1985 Kanishka bombing, Talwinder Singh Parmar, and his other associates. In fact, the whole premises is full of material glorifying terrorists pasted all over the walls, congratulating the mass murders of innocent people in the name of the Khalistan movement. Many a time, there have also been open calls to assassinate Indian officials with billboards put in the premises to incite people against India’s government.

Meanwhile, the revelations made by Global News regarding the denial of visas by the Modi government have led the usual anti-India lobby to accuse India of foreign interference. In a volley of OpEd pieces and social media posts, the coolies from the West have descended to attack India over not just harassing people of Indian origin on foreign soil but also spying on them and collecting relevant information. Some have even claimed that people whose visas have been denied by India are human rights activists, and they were simply exposing Modi government’s governance record and hence have been targeted in the form of visa denial. So far, it has followed the usual script of settling scores with India by justifying the demands of Khalistanis and terming them as freedom activists while at the same time criticising the human rights record of India and claiming that the government is actively prosecuting Sikhs as a minority.

No matter how hard the global press may twist the issue to attack India or the Modi government, which was chosen with a wide electoral support for the third time in 2024, the reality is that the visa of any country, including India, is a privilege and not a right. Whether India, as a sovereign entity, decides to grant it to a visiting individual or not is completely the country’s call. Also, territorial integrity is one of the highly defended basic principles for any nation-state, and no state would allow people who call for its disintegration a right to visit. In fact, this is how it has always been in the case of other countries worldwide. You would never see China granting a visa to activists who support the independence of Tibet or the Uighur separatists.

Similarly, countries in the West that project themselves as the epitome of human civilisation also react in a similar way when separatists seek visas to visit them. There are instances of Spain denying visas to Catalonian separatists, Britain denying visas to supporters of Irish freedom, and Greece denying visas to Macedonian separatists. Even less-powerful and developing countries such as Sri Lanka have denied visas to Tamil separatists in the past. Hence, if the allegations in the report are true, then what India is doing is completely in line with what’s a standard diplomatic practice globally.

As there has been no official reaction to the report published by Canadian media from the Indian government yet, one cannot vouch for the veracity of the claim that India has indeed asked Khalistanis to sign letters denouncing support for the movement, but if it is true, then it is a highly commendable action by the Modi government. This is because this action directly addresses the active nurturing of Khalistani elements by subsequent Canadian governments, making the country a safe sanctuary for anti-India activities.

One doesn’t need to dig deeper to understand the strategic manner in which the official Canadian establishment has long weaponised access to Canadian soil as a tool to target countries such as India. What else can be the reason, if not an ulterior motive to hamper India’s national security, that Canada has systematically denied visas to military personnel who have served in Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab? It has even demanded extensive information from them regarding their job postings and the nature of work when they sought Canadian visas in the past. The visa form specifically has a column for this where many ex-servicemen have opened up about cheap theatrics that the Canadian government has deployed to extract sensitive information from them or has outrightly denied visas to them due to their involvement in counter-terror operations.

In complete contrast to the way that Canada treats members of India’s defence establishment is the way that it lays out a red carpet for all kinds of shady elements that flock to Canada and conduct anti-India activities. It is a very old trend where, since the 1980s, a large number of Khalistanis have fled to Canada and have found a safe haven to raise their demands, sometimes in the most violent ways, which includes the Kanishka bombing, in which more than 300 people lost their lives. This trend has only accelerated in the recent years with Justin Trudeau’s stint in power, who has benefitted immensely by giving patronage to Sikh separatists. In fact, so friendly and welcoming is the law and order machinery in Canada when it comes to Khalistanis that Nijjar, whose cause Trudeau has championed at every diplomatic forum, was a man who had fraudulently obtained Canadian citizenship by producing a fake passport with a different identity.

Nijjar is not alone, as despite the repeated warnings from the current Modi government, Canada has actively allowed Khalistanis an easy entry into the country. In fact, just this year in October, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ended up inadvertently accepting the presence of Khalistani elements in the country during a press conference. Canada has long backed the anti-India separatists in the garb of human rights and freedom of speech and expression. The Khalistanis have successfully penetrated the Canadian system to wage a war against India, a fact that even China admitted.

In an analysis posted on the Chinese app WeChat by the overseas influence operations arm of the Chinese Communist Party, it has been claimed that Sikh separatists wield an extraordinary influence over the Trudeau government. The analysis has held the model presented by Khalistanis as a successful one, asking Chinese diaspora community members to replicate the same. It is pertinent to note here that so intense was the pressure on Trudeau’s government from Khalistani extremists that his government had to amend a report citing Khalistani terrorism as one of the top threats in 2018.

Canadian governments, especially Justin Trudeau’s, appeasement of the Khalistanis has made things very difficult for India. The country is already spending precious diplomatic energy in addressing claims of targeted assassinations on foreign soil. But now the chickens have come home to roost as India has started its own campaign against the Khalistanis by weaponising their continued access to the country.

The message to them is clear: if they will not cease anti-India activities on foreign soil, then they will not be able to come back to India at will and take care of their personal or business matters. Not just this; things may become difficult for their family members as well. It is a great sign of India’s diplomatic coming of age, where it is ready to take tough measures for the sake of its national security. If the reports aforesaid some element of truth, then visa denial is a good start; confiscating the property of Khalistan sympathisers and freezing their assets in India should be the next logical step. Western capitals have taken Indian interests for a ride too long, but New Delhi knows how to fight back.

The author is a New Delhi-based commentator on geopolitics and foreign policy. She holds a PhD from the Department of International Relations, South Asian University. She tweets @TrulyMonica. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.