Sikhs abroad will continue to hound likes of Sajjan Kumar

Washington: Sajjan Kumar should not rest easy. The Sikh diaspora abroad, which is increasingly activist and angry, will continue to hound him and others.

If anyone thought the memories of 1984 anti-Sikh riots and an apology from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had assuaged the hurt, they had better prepare themselves for a more sophisticated and sustained campaign through the courts in Europe, Canada and the United States. And may be even through the US Congress in a horrible déjà vu of the mid-1990s when Khalistanis ran around Capitol Hill damning India with the help of a few Congressmen willing to hold hearings for campaign money on the Indian army’s campaign against Sikh terrorists in Punjab.

A section of the Sikh diaspora in America has grown distant from India with every generation and less sentimental despite family ties back in Punjab. Sikh spokesmen on US television talk of Sikhism as sui generis, not as an offshoot of Hinduism. It is as if they had no links to India. The new generation has decided, in fact, to strike a completely separate ethnic and religious identity to fight its battles here – racial profiling, racist attacks since 9/11 and the discrimination by the US armed forces, which do not allow turbans and beards.

These are hard, legitimate issues demanding sustained campaigns. At the same time, the invigorated younger generation also aims its arrows at the perpetrators of the horrific 1984 anti-Sikh violence in India, organized and allowed by the Congress Party leaders to avenge the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.

Sikhs for Justice, a US-based group, has vowed to hound Kamal Nath. It filed a criminal case against him in New York, which was eventually dismissed last year but not before he had to hire a lawyer to represent him before a US judge. Undeterred, Sikhs for Justice managed to file another case, this time in Switzerland, to greet Kamal Nath at Davos in January. Although he has never been charged in India and denies allegations that he led a mob against a gurudwara, Kamal Nath’s trips abroad are now regularly greeted with protests from Sikh activists, many of whom are also sympathetic to the idea of Khalistan.

A twin development of note is the creation last week of a Sikh American Congressional Caucus in the US House of Representatives – a body distinct from the larger India Caucus meant to address issues of concern to the whole Indian American community. Clearly not satisfied that their concerns would be addressed, the Sikh community in the US decided to strike out on its own, spurred by the racial attack on a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin last August in which six people were killed and four wounded.

But the question is whether the Sikh American Caucus would limit itself to serious issues facing the community or can it stray in unwanted territory? At the launch function on Capitol Hill, there were some known Khalistan sympathizers in the audience.

The initial membership of 30 Congressmen and women is likely to grow as more campaign donations are made to lure the politicians. Interestingly, most of the Congressmen recruited are from California where the wealthiest Sikh farmers reside. And most of them are from the Democratic Party. Congresswoman Judy Chu of California led the effort and is now a co-chair. It is unclear if Chu fully understands the import of the separatist Khalistan movement.

The Sikh Caucus is a diplomatic setback for India, which would like to embrace the entire diaspora in one big hug and one caucus. The Indian Embassy apparently tried to “inform” prospective Congressional members about the subterranean separatist leanings of some of the Sikh activists they were courting. It tried hard to scotch the move a month ago and even thought it had succeeded but then came the surprise announcement about the launch.

The man behind the caucus is Pritpal Singh, the coordinator of the American Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, and a known sympathizer of the Khalistan movement, which continues to survive in the diaspora. Pritpal Singh regularly visits Pakistan to take part in functions at various gurudwaras there.

In a telephone conversation, he hedged around the issue of Khalistan. When I asked him point blank whether he supports Khalistan, he demurred. “I am not saying anything” was his answer. He said he couldn’t speak for other groups behind the Sikh American Caucus and whether they may some day take up the issue.

Pritpal Singh and another California Sikh behind the push for the caucus, Harpreet Singh Sandhu, are both believed to be close to Dr. Amarjit Singh, the head of the Khalistan Affairs Council, an out-and-out separatist organization “to promote the vision and creation of a sovereign Sikh state.”  With an office address in Washington’s elite National Press Building, the KAC does “advocacy for Khalistan as well as awareness of atrocities committed by the Indian state against Sikhs.”

Hopefully, the Sikh American Caucus will focus on its stated goals of educating Americans about the community to reduce hate crimes and bullying of young Sikh boys at school and not become a platform from which to launch loaded missiles.  That the Khalistan movement is alive abroad, if not in India, is undisputed – the attack on Lt. Gen. (retd.) KS Brar last October in London while he was on a holiday is only the most recent evidence. He had led Operation Blue Star in 1984 to flush out Sikh extremists from the Golden Temple.

To ensure that disgruntled elements don’t dominate the discourse and create ill-will towards India will be a huge diplomatic task.