Why khalistan is bad

They should have simply said, celebrate diversity. Once you accept that, you need not worry about the national commitment to any fellow Indian. One of the holiest shrines for Indian Sikhs and so many non-Sikh Indians is open now.

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Whether you live in India or overseas, you can do it here. Support Our Journalism. Another great article from Shekhar Gupta, spot on. I have been reading him since the s on the subject, if anyone has a feel for the subject, then he does. A true Sikh will not forget or forgive the crimes committed against their forefathers historically by the Muslims.

A Sikh trusting the words of Muslim, showing a sympathetic ear towards them needs to stop and look back at history of Muslim v Sikhs. I think Sidhu is another Bindrawale being created. This time sikhs have to be cautious. No comparison between Sikhs and Kashmiris, Sikhs have strong family values and roots run deep of pride and esteem. Whereas Kashmiris have been uprooted and overwhelmed by jehadi ideology. They are a decaying tribe.

Sikhs are all over and carved a niche in all fields. Sikhs are our strength and pillars of our society. Their can no India without Sikhs. And also what kind of religious freedom one enjoys in Pakistan and what can re-happen to them. This reminder needs to be spread on social media and through social dialogue before the Sikhs get carried away by some stupid fervour. The Canadian Sikhs need to be incorporated in the group. This is culmination of process started under PM Vajpayee.

Gupta must have a forgetful memory. Very true. To be perfectly fair, Kashmiris are not gullible either. We should be doing a lot more to make the marriage work. Shekharji, to elaborate on the point made above, if we are making such efforts to make the marriage with Sikhs work, why are we not doing so with Muslims, Tribals, Dalits etc.

Why are we othering them? Why are you and your ilk not asking such questions of the powers that be? It is to the credit of the Congress pasty that they tried to make it work for so long with Muslims, probably because of the scar of partition. Today, their elimination from Pakistan is not quite complete but, under the threat of forced conversions, attacks on gurdwaras and worsening discrimination against all religious minorities in Pakistan, fewer than 10, Sikhs remain where once there were two million.

This, in a country which supposedly stands for their liberation from oppression. Rather, it makes it all the more bizarre that undying solidarity with Pakistan has become a kind of theme song for the American lawyer, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who leads Sikhs For Justice, the driving force in the campaign for a referendum on Sikh independence. But, in truth, the Khalistan movement would be of very little use in a conflict, given the lack of support it commands even in Punjab — the only Indian state with a Sikh majority.

There are good reasons for this. According to an official count by the Punjab Police, the 12 years of Sikh insurgency ending in were scarred by hijackings, stabbings, shootings and bombings which took a staggering 21, lives — and most of the victims, whether civilian, police or separatist fighters, were Sikh.

Fourteen hundred Punjab policemen were murdered, along with many of their family members. Farmers, judges, teachers, journalists, bankers who lent to the wrong people, and delivery men who brought the wrong newspapers were all butchered.

Much of the violence was driven by groups of puritanical Sikh fundamentalists who demanded strict religious observance and killed, with equal zeal, both Hindus and Sikhs deemed insufficiently devout.

When a schoolteacher failed to ensure that her students wore proper religious dress, she was shot dead. These people include many who remember the bad old days of the 80s and have no experience of the modern age in India.

Many of them had been banned from getting a visa to visit family in India for years. That changed in recent years when under Manmohan Singh the black list was purged and a lot of people were allowed to visit India and bury the past. So, how long this movement will survive even in the diaspora is a question to be asked. Does the Sikh diaspora demanding Khalistan wish to live in the new state if at all it is made?

That is questionable to me. The Sikh community in Canada, for instance, has been extremely successful. Most of them have no interest in Khalistan politics. They are professionals, driving big cars, living in nice houses, living the Canadian lifestyle. They are worried about getting to work on time and trying to bring up their kids, same as everyone else. There is a small minority that is clinging to the past, and that small minority remains significant not because of popular support, but rather because they are trying to keep up their political influence with various political parties both from the left and the right.

They can rally supporters en masse who will vote for the politicians who can sing their song. For example, there is a very important Gurdwara in British Columbia, on the west coast of Canada, which has big posters of Talwinder Singh Parmar, the leader of the Air India bombers.

He is a proven terrorist who slaughtered more than completely innocent civilians, and he is held up as a hero and a martyr by this important Gurdwara.

They get away with it, they are indulged and tolerated by politicians who support their agenda by looking away in return for thousands of votes during election time. It said that if India should start to recognise and support an independent Taiwan, then China might start supporting independence movements in India. So for Indian strategists, two supporters of the Khalistani movement on the northern front need to be considered, the Pakistanis and the Chinese.

Or perhaps, it is just one front, now that China basically owns Pakistan. Pakistan is in hock to China. And guess who the Khalistani separatists are pledging allegiance to? China could well tolerate, subsidise and assist in various ways the Khalistan movement on the basis that it is making trouble for their enemies in India.

Click here to join our channel indianexpress and stay updated with the latest headlines. Adrija Roychowdhury Adrija writes long, researched features on history, world and national Excerpts of the interview Why do you say that the Khalistan movement is a case study in how not to do it? The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.

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