Court Upholds Article 370 Move

The Indian Supreme Court upheld the government's decision to abrogate Article 370 on 11 Dec, which bestowed special status on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said Article 370 of the Constitution was a temporary provision and the president has the power to revoke it. The apex court also upheld the validity of the decision to carve out the union territory of Ladakh from Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019. He said the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir does not have internal sovereignty different from other states of the country. The verdict also said, ‘Steps should be taken to conduct elections in the assembly by September 30 next year.’ The verdict has come as a massive disappointment to those who still believe in democracy and justice in India. The judgment has inspired major questions on the validity of the idea of federal structure. Former Chief Justices have questioned the decision. They forget, the Indian state had called the original blueprint of a federal structure presented by the Sikhs – the Anandpur Sahib Resolution – a seditious document. There has been almost no response from Kashmir, but unlike 2019 there has been no extra militarization of the region (SDW Vol. 1 Issue 2, Story 10). China has rejected India’s occupation of Ladakh but not commented on internal affairs. Meanwhile, against the Supreme Court’s suggestion, amid Opposition walkout, the Rajya Sabha passed the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023 on 12 Dec.. The Bill does not make space for the Chief Justice of India in the new Election Commission. India’s democracy is being structurally eroded.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, has disclosed that government of India agents interfered in Canada’s Conservative’s 2022 leadership race. They did so by purchasing memberships for one candidate while undermining another, and boasted of funding ‘a number of politicians at all levels of government.’ The Indian Consulate in Canada also urged an MP to pull back their support to Patrick Brown during the 2022 Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leadership race. In addition, in 2022, the Indian Consulate barred Brown from Indian community and Consulate events for his policy positions were seen to be contrary to Indian interests at the time. CSIS recently approached multiple pro-India actors and organizations in Canada over concerns about interference on behalf of India, They appear to have independently supported the Pierre Poilievre leadership campaign. Another Sikh news website published a dossier on some of the chief Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Intelligence Bureau officials working from Indian consulates. The names include Akun Sabharwal, Sarvesh Raj, Amanat Mann, Shachi Ghildiyal, Deepak Chaudhary, Manmeet Singh Narang, Jag Mohan and P Karunakaran (Mohan and Karunakaran are still stationed at the Washington embassy), and Jasdip Singh, Chairman of Sikhs of America. Meanwhile, on 13 Dec, a leading American newspaper reported on an organization named the Disinfo Lab, founded in 2020. It has published lengthy social media posts claiming to reveal the funding sources behind US-based Modi critics. The report alleged that Disinfo Lab is run by Lt. Col. Dibya Satpathy, presently posted with India’s RAW.

The Sikh Research Institute (SikhRI) has recently released a 14-page report titled Sikhs, Panjab, India and the Diaspora: Locating the Current Crisis. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the current crisis as an educational resource for policy-makers, academics, governments and the community with a focus on the historical context primarily from 1984 to 2023. The report underscores the unaddressed issues of human rights violations, state-led violence, and mass disappearances against Sikhs, particularly during the June 1984 Indian Army attack on Darbar Sahib and other Sikh Gurdwaras and the Sikh Genocide of November 1984. It discusses the Khalistan movement’s evolution, the involvement of Sikh leaders, and the use of terms like terrorism and extremism in legal contexts. The report mentions recent incidents, including the deaths of Sikh activists Avtar Singh Khanda and Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Khalistan Referendum, the assassination attempt on Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, and international reactions, including diplomatic tensions between Canada and India. The policy implications section suggests recommendations to countries with Sikh populations. These include assurances of Sikh rights and safety and appointing a Special Representative to combat anti-Sikh hate. It urges countries to assure Sikhs in the diaspora and India that their rights are protected and their safety is guaranteed. It suggests creating open channels of communication and stopping the amplification of manufactured and/or rare events as a pattern of violence by the Sikhs.It calls for understanding that the Sikh and Indian Panjab issues remain unaddressed; ending the demonization of Sikhs every time they protest; and treating Indian Panjab’s grievances as part of the national and international political solution.

Canada has announced significant changes in its immigration regulations, affecting those aspiring to study in the country. In a statement on 7 Nov, Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, said beginning 1 Jan 2024, the minimum cost of living financial requirement for students will be raised from the current CAD 10,000 to CAD 20,635. Now, Canada has announced updates on three temporary policies that were set to expire at the end of 2023: work permit, work hour limit, online-offline classes. The Canadian government has decided not to extend a temporary policy providing an additional 18-month work permit to post-graduation work permit holders whose permits had expired or were set to end. This will impact international students whose post-graduate work permits will expire after 31 Dec 2023. The waiver on the 20-hour-per-week limit for international students allowed to work off campus while class is in session is extended to 30 Apr 2024. This condition only applies to international students already in Canada as well as those who have applied for a study permit as of 7 Dec 2023. Currently, international students in Canada can study online and offline on a 50:50 basis. This policy will continue but only for students who began a study programme before 1 Sep 2024. Instead of addressing crucial issues – college fee, rent control and affordable accommodation – the Canadian government has increased challenges for students. About 70% of 300,000 foreign students who study in Canada are from Panjab. Their discontent is growing (SDW Vol. 1 Issue 4, Story 2).

In September, the US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, publicly acknowledged that New Delhi extended an invitation to the US President Joe Biden to be the chief guest for Republic Day 2024. Now sources have confirmed Biden is not going to be the chief guest of the Republic Day celebrations next year and the scheduled Quad summit in January 2024 is also being postponed. The US embassy has not issued any separate announcement on the fate of the Indian invitation (SDW Vol. 1 Issue 12, Story 1). With Biden declining India’s invitation this time around, it will be the second time that the US has turned down an invitation for the President to be the chief guest. India had previously invited Donald Trump to be the chief guest for the 2019 Republic Day parade. However, the Trump administration turned down the invite, citing domestic commitments, especially the State of the Union address. Meanwhile, all five serving Indian-American members of the US Congress – known as the Samosa Caucus – have warned that unless India investigates and holds those responsible for plotting an assassination of US citizen  Gurpatwant Singh Pannu  on American soil accountable, the issue can cause ‘significant damage’ to the ‘very consequential’ India-US bilateral partnership. They have also sought  clear assurance from India that such an incident will never occur again. Last week, the FBI chief visited India and met the heads of various intelligence agencies. The terse press release from Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) says both India and the US recognized ‘the need to expedite sharing of evidence and for closer assistance in bringing criminals and fugitives to face justice.’

On 13 Dec, on the 22^nd anniversary of the Parliament attack 2001, there was a major security breach during Zero Hour, a period during which Members of Parliament (MPs) can raise issues of urgent public importance. Two men jumped from the visitors' gallery and ran towards the Speaker in the Lok Sabha. Both were carrying canisters emitting non-lethal yellow smoke and shouting ‘down with dictatorship.’ Simultaneously, a man and a woman outside the Parliament also released non-poisonous gas. All were apprehended. The assailants are: Sagar Sharma, D Manoranjan, Amol Shinde and Neelam Azad. They acquired a Visitor's Pass from Mysore BJP MP Pratap Simha. Amritsar INC MP, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, intercepted the smoke bomb from Sharma. He also spoke about the security vulnerabilities at the new Parliament and wondered what if the intent of the intruders was not to surprise but to kill. SAD’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal wondered what would have happened if the intruders were not Hindu, but Muslim or Sikh. The media would have gone into a frenzy, rather than suppressing the incident as they are doing now. A few days back Sikhs for Justice’s Gurpatwant Singh Pannun issued a threat to attack the Parliament and now he has offered $12,000 to cover the assailants’ legal fees – an attempt to appropriate the intrusion. The Opposition has been demanding a statement by the PM or Home Minister. Instead of making a statement which would reveal that the post of Joint Secretary (Security) has been lying vacant since earlier this year, the staff on the first gate is operating at 15% and the second gate at 40% required strength, the government has until now suspended 141 Opposition MPs.

In a diplomatic note dated 25 Jul 2023, French Ambassador to India Emmanuel Lenain commented on the difficulty of collaborating with India on criminal cases noting, ‘many cases are handled by our Indian partners with very long delays, often in an incomplete manner.’ In a new report, published by Paris-based investigative website Mediapart, details emerged on how the Modi-led government is refusing to cooperate with French judges in their ongoing investigation into alleged corruption in the €7.8B sale of 36 Dassault-built Rafale fighter jets to India in 2016. The Indian government has refused to comply with a formal request for international cooperation on the case investigating suspected corruption, influence peddling, and favoritism in the deal. The highly sensitive investigation implicates three heads of state or governments: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, French president Emmanuel Macron, and his predecessor at the Elysée, François Hollande. In the 2019 general elections, the opposition INC tried to make the Rafale deal an important issue; however, the BJP government returned to power with an even larger majority than in 2014. In 2018, the Indian Supreme Court decided to not order a court-monitored investigation into the deal. In 2019, the Court rejected the plea to review its judgment. Post-retirement, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, who had earlier given a favorable judgment in the Ram Janmabhoomi case based on unverified Janam Sakhis (accounts of Sikh founder-Guru’s lives), was awarded with a Rajya Sabha membership. Just as with the current Nijjar case in Canada, the extent of India's non-cooperation with other governments is widening with each new revelation.

At a loan of ₹2.52 lakh per operative Kisan Credit Card (KCC), Panjab tops India in per farmer outstanding loans. Panjab’s debt burden is ₹55,428 crores to around ₹21.98 lakh agricultural families, surpassing the national average of ₹1.20 lakh per KCC holder. The KCC, introduced in 1998, facilitates farmers to purchase agricultural inputs and draw cash for their production needs. This loan burden excludes institutional loans by banks and non-institutional loans by commission agents. A study last year showed Panjab farmer’s borrowing is the highest in India. The study revealed a marginal farmer in Panjab borrows ₹3.4 lakh annually, as compared to ₹84,000 and ₹62,000 in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, respectively. More than 40% of the surveyed farmers had never received any farm loan waiver. The agrarian distress is real and the question is how the state deals with the issues. Recently, Panjab farmers protested over sugarcane prices and have not accepted the new price offered by the government (SDW Vol. 1 Issue 11 Update). A stark example is how in Panjab CM Mann’s constituency Dhuri, the Bhagwanpura sugar mill – that began operations in the early 1950s – is shutting down. Kunal Yadav acquired the mill in 2005 and announced its closure on 27 Oct this year as it was running into more than ₹100 crore losses. The reasons: lack of support by the state government and inadequate raw materials. Until 2017-18, nearly 20,000 acres in the area were under sugarcane cultivation. Payment problems led farmers to reduce the area and the raw produce to the mill.

Staring at dwindling fortunes and lack of revival in many years, on 14 Dec, at Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Gurbux Singh, Amritsar, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal apologized over the incidents of sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib. Badal was speaking at the party’s 103^rd Foundation Day. He said, ‘We are perceived as a Panthic government and we are a Panthic party but we could not apprehend the culprits.’ He referenced the 2015 Bargari incident but officially there have been 272 sacrilege incidents between 2015-2021. The DSGMC president Harmeet Singh Kalka, who won the Delhi Gurdwara Committee elections on the SAD symbol in 2021 and was later expelled in 2022 for revolting against SAD, strongly criticized Badal’s apology. He said the apology was a drama and listed out a number of issues for which the SAD is responsible. ‘There can’t be a sin greater than a mere apology for letting the culprits escape. Today you talk about Sikh prisoners but you had appointed Sumedh Singh Saini as the Director General of Police of Panjab. You had forgiven Dera Sacha Sauda head and then used the community’s funds to advertise it. Are you apologizing for that and for supporting the Dera followers?’ It is interesting to note that SAD, which started as a Sikh party and changed its outlook to a Panjab party at its 1995 Moga convention, is now again claiming to be a panthic (Sikh) party. It is yet to be seen if the apology assuages the Sikh community and the party is able to revive itself.

The question of Sikhs carrying their articles of faith continues to reoccur globally. While some Western countries, such as Canada, now allow turbans and even kirpan (traditional sword) in military services and flights, the acceptance is not universal. In India, Article 25B of the Constitution allows Sikhs to carry the kirpan. Yet, it took significant effort to implement the rule for passengers in domestic flights. The rule books define the kirpan as a dagger with its blade not more than six inches. In early 2022, citing security risks, the right-wing Hindu Sena filed a petition in the courts to disallow Sikhs from carrying the kirpan on domestic flights. On international flights, barring Canada, kirpans are disallowed. Amritdhari (initiated) Sikhs are required to surrender their kirpan before their flight and it is carried in a separate box, delivered to them after they land. The Delhi High Court dismissed the petition saying the government notification was issued after ‘due deliberations’ and that the issue agitated in the plea is ‘entirely a matter of policy decision.’ Now a Sikh pilot has filed a plea to allow Sikh employees to wear the kirpan. Angad Singh, 23, works as a pilot with InterGlobe Aviation that operates IndiGo airlines. On 11 Dec, a division bench of Justices Nitin Sambre and Abhay Mantri, issued a notice to the Union government and the companies InterGlobe Aviation and IndiGo directing them to file their replies by 29 Jan 2024.