Unmasking Gurpatwant Singh Pannun: Timing, threats and interplay of global influences

British media has yet again brought up the issue of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, citing a ‘warning’ issued to the Indian government of a supposed planned attack against him on US soil. The curious point? This was issued in June, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Washington, on what by any account, was a highly successful visit. Why the UK media decided to print this now is unclear, except that the publishing of the story led to the US National Security Council spokesperson issuing yet another statement on how seriously the issue was being considered. All this at a time, when London resembles a war zone as ‘tens of thousands’ of anti-Palestine protests engulfed the city. These scenes are being replicated in Sweden, France and the Netherlands, even disrupting New York.

A no-news report

All of this becomes even more interesting due to a recent report from  DisinfoLab which pointed to some curious features. First the timing. reason The Financial Times quotes a ‘source’ (always a useful ploy to insert a story) as saying that the ‘warning’ was not just issued in June, but seems to have preceded the Canadian allegations against India on the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar (18 June). As a story it has nothing new in it, but it does hold a carefully constructed warning. It notes “The US Department of Justice is debating whether to unseal the indictment and make the allegations public or wait until Canada finishes its investigation into Nijjar’s murder.” In other words, it’s talking about possible future revelations. The whole story ( unsurprisingly) ends with the usual trite comment on India being headed by a “Hindu nationalist party” etc. The report also carefully notes, that the information (on the alleged hit) had been shared with allies. Clearly, that is a reference to the ‘Five Eyes’ (Australia, UK, US, Canada and New Zealand). The article caused a furore in the media. The Ministry of External Affairs responded said US had shared inputs on a nexus between organised criminals, terrorists and others, which was shared with relevant departments for further action. After that, it very wisely said nothing.

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Digging out the data

The Disinfo report also notes other propaganda efforts. This includes a BBC report by a UK think tank Centre for Information Resilience, on ‘Real Sikh influence network pushing Indian nationalism’. That report claimed that a ‘coordinated influence operation’ was underway on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using fake identities, to act as influencers within the Sikh community to discredit “the push for Sikh independence’ and stoke cultural tensions etc, and ‘promote Indian government content’. That, in turn, was tied to the farmers’ protests, with the author Benjamin Strick, noting ‘concerning indications of information warfare against minorities in India”. Disinfolab took the report apart, noting that the large-scale info warfare in fact consisted of 33 Twitter handles, most of which in fact reported actual news, or mocked Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. It also observed that around this time, a far larger network was exposed by them, with about 186 handles, and most were created on a single day. None of the many such fake news networks merited the attention of the BBC or the think tank.

The UK’s own Disinfo?

The ultimate irony? One of the co-founders of the think tank, was linked to the highly controversial Integrity Initiative set up as part of a charity named ‘Institute of Statecraft’, and funded quietly through UK government, ostensibly worked against Disinfo campaigns. What it was found to be doing was also meddling in the internal politics of the country, covert manipulation of the public sphere, and creating networks of academics and journalists for that purpose. In other words, a hefty disinfo organisation in its own right that is spread right across the world. Strick is a former BBC employee and was also associated with the UK government and was most of the members. And it was this Institute which was supporting a Khalistani-propelled initiative, that even the meanest intelligence could understand was being propelled from Pakistan. After all Pannun and the crowd only identified Indian Punjab as part of their ‘Khalistan’, leaving out the Pakistani half. Nothing surprising for India in that since Khalistani leaders have been operating from there for years. But the question that arises is whether it is also being run from the UK.

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More irony

The period of the farmers’ protests and the Amritpal Singh incident exposed how the Khalistanis – though a small majority – have managed to infiltrate the political system. The Sikh Federation of UK has been supportive of all these causes and is also closely allied to the British Sikh APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group), chaired by Preet Gill, an MP whose tweets in the past, has more than established her support for the Khalistan cause. Other MPs like Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, have been openly supportive of the farmers’ protest, calling it the ‘largest protest on the planet’. But here’s the interesting aspect.  He is rabidly anti-Semitic as apparent from his Parliament record. He is also equally supportive of separatism in Kashmir. He also called out the Article 370 as “unacceptable”.  The two causes have often been twinned in terms of protests against India.

What is notable is that the Kashmir-Khalistan project is also apparent in the United States, where Gurpatwant Singh Pannun has declared that an “Urduistan” will be created to separate Kashmir from India. That is only the tip of the iceberg, The report from Hudson Institute outlines the entire connect that is being wrought between the two. Yet other reports note the close alliances being formed between the Kashmiri and the Palestinian causes. That includes funding from Jamaat e Islami for ‘jihad’ in Israel, and   website of the “Ban, Divestment, Sanctions Movement” also includes not just exhortations to Indian but also ‘ Joint Struggle’ against India, for adopting ‘Israeli methods of repression’. Another twist. It also declares that it supports Indian farmers. A range of charities in the US support these causes, sometimes unknowingly. Earlier this year, this issue was raised in the House when USAID was charged with funding HHRD (Helping Hands for Relief and Development) an outfit known to be linked to terror.

In simpler terms, the lines between Khalistani, Kashmiri, and Palestinian outfits are becoming increasingly blurred each day, as the conflict sparks protests around the world. This proximity is dangerous for the host countries and has the potential to spiral out of control. That they are being tolerated at the very least in the US, openly supported in Canada, and perhaps being used for intel games in the UK, is something Delhi has to factor, into its policies. Meanwhile, our own intel needs to dig up the links between all these groups and present them as a fait accompli to Washington, a relationship that matters the most to Delhi. Meanwhile, both need to understand that there are others who want the US-India relationship to falter. That’s why Pannun has been reaching out to China as well, thanking Beijing for its ‘support’ for a referendum. As the international system enters a period of severe flux, it is vital that countries know who their friends are. Even more importantly, they need to also recognise their frenemies.

The writer is a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi. She tweets @kartha_tara. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s_ views.

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