Khalistani extremists’ violence against Indian Hindus and people of Indian origin is becoming a global issue. It is already a major problem in the UK and Canada; it has reared its head in the United States, and now it has taken a violent turn in Australia. As part of the so-called referendum being conducted by the radical “Sikhs for Justice” of Gur-Patwant Singh Pannu, a violent group of extremists attacked and injured the Indians who were protesting the holding of the referendum. The hatred that these brainwashed radicals have for India and Indians is abundantly clear in the videos of the incident. The Australian media coverage of the “referendum” has bizarre comments from the so-called voters who speak of settling in Khalistan once it becomes an independent country, which, according to the SFJ, comprises not just Punjab but also Himachal Pradesh and parts of both Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, as well as Delhi’s National Capital Region. Significantly, SFJ’s demand is restricted to India and does not mention the Pakistani part of Punjab, which too has a very rich history of Sikhism, with some of the most important shrines of that religion located there. But then SFJ cannot possibly go against their paymasters in Pakistan, the ISI and GHQ Rawalpindi. So the country that has ensured that the Sikh community is persecuted, forced to convert, or killed, Pakistan, does not find any mention in the Khalistani plan; while the country that has had both a Sikh Prime Minister and a Sikh President and has innumerable success stories of community members all over the landscape, India, has to be broken into bits. These residents of Cloud Cuckoo Land seem to believe that something so outlandish is actually possible, but then that is the power of brainwashing. Such hoodlums can do zilch for India, even with all the material support they are getting from their own diaspora and from Pakistan. Even their attempt to foment trouble in Punjab and revive the Khalistan movement is not meeting with success. Since it is not easy taking on the might of the Indian state, it is the soft targets—the ordinary Indians, both at home and abroad—who are in the crosshairs of these cowboys. They have started using the excuse of “Hinduism” and “fundamentalism” to attack Hindus and their places of worship, as it has happened in Australia too. In a larger context, this hatred for Hindus and Indians is to a certain extent the contribution of the western media, writers, and academics, who, since 2014, have tried as much as ISI and GHQ to keep the pot of identity politics boiling by labeling India’s majority community as intolerant, extremist bigots, who are perse Their hatred for Narendra Modi finds reflection in their hatred for ordinary Indians. Their argument, soaked in some deeply leftist bias, is that India’s Hindu majority is filled with hatred for minorities, is guilty of majoritarianism, and must be hounded, while all voices to the contrary must be discredited. This was seen in Leicester in the United Kingdom, where instead of blaming the Islamists, who were the actual perpetrators, the British press spun a fiction to paint the victims of Islamist violence as the oppressors and ganged up against anyone who disagreed. In this agenda-driven Hindu and Indian bashing, they forget how the radicals can use and are, in fact, using such narratives to intimidate, harass, and attack the common Indian. Hence, such writers, journalists, and academics are as much responsible for any violence against Hindus and Indians as Pakistan and the Khalistani diaspora. They are stoking Hinduphobia and must be called out.
