US Names Indian Officials

On 29 Apr, The Washington Post published the name of Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) official Vikram Yadav who instructed Indian national Nikhil Gupta to hire a team to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in June 2023. Until now, this person was referred to as CC-1 in the US govt. charges in a New York Court in November 2023 (SDW Vol. 1 Issue 12, Story 1). The Post added that the operation targeting Pannun was approved by the RAW chief at the time, Samant Goel. Goel is a Panjab cadre officer since 1984 and retired from RAW on 30 Jun 2023. The report is based on ‘interviews with more than three dozen current and former senior officials’ in India and other countries. It speculated that India's National Security Agency (NSA) advisor Ajit Doval 'was probably aware of RAW’s plans to kill Sikh activists.’ Neither Doval nor Goel responded to messages seeking comment. India’s Ministry of External Affairs declined to respond to detailed questions submitted and has now termed the report ‘unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations’. Yadav is supposedly a mid-career professional. Since the US made the assassination plot public, Yadav has disappeared. India has earlier stated their officer had gone ‘rogue’ (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 13, Story 1). While the US Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation pushed to prosecute Yadav and implicate RAW in the conspiracy, the indictment made no mention of RAW. Gupta is still in a Czech jail, pending extradition. Earlier this month, The Guardian published a story on how the Indian govt. ordered killings in Pakistan. That India would pursue lethal operations in North America has stunned Western security officials and the Sikh diaspora.

The second phase of the Indian Elections was on 26 Apr. 160M citizens in 88 constituencies across 13 states and union territories were eligible to vote. The final voter percentage was 66%, a dip of 3% (early numbers reported 10%) from the second Phase election in 2019. The voter turnout was low in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, highest in Tripura. While the Indian PM Narendra Modi tweeted the Phase has been ‘too good,’ overall the elections are marked by his catalog of lies and hate speeches. On his scapegoating Muslims on 21 Apr, initially the Election Commission (EC) declined to comment (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 17, Story 1). When political parties and 17,400 citizens wrote to EC to urge the body to send a notice to PM Modi, it instead sent it to the BJP chief JP Nadda. This is the first time a sitting PM has been asked to explain a violation of the Model of Conduct. In his speeches, PM Modi hardly talks about the BJP manifesto or the party’s claims on development. He indulges in alarmism by saying if INC comes to power they will survey, seize, and redistribute private wealth, snatch the gold jewelry of married Hindu women, and introduce religion-based reservations — all to exclusively benefit Muslims. A fact check shows neither INC manifesto nor INC leaders have said this. All INC has promised is a socio-economic and caste survey to understand who the marginalized communities are and how to help them. On 22 Apr, SAD criticized PM Modi saying, ‘Guru Nanak Dev has taught us to treat all human beings as equal and seek good for everyone. PM Modi has undermined our Constitution.’

Amritpal Singh in a u-turn, lodged in an Assam prison under the National Security Act (NSA) since April 2023, will contest the general elections from Khadoor Sahib in Panjab as an independent, said his mother Balwinder Kaur on 26 Apr. She said, ‘The decision to contest elections has been taken on the demand of sangat (community) and panchayats (local representatives) of the constituency. The government hasn’t stopped committing atrocities against the Sikhs and the aim of contesting the polls is to take the issues of the Sikhs to a bigger platform, get the Bandi Singhs (Sikh prisoners) released from the jails and intensify the dharam parchar (religious propagation).’ (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 17, Story 8) The move has further stirred Panjab’s political waters, already choppy with many defections from one party to another. This development is a challenge to SAD, who claim to represent Sikhs. Khadoor Sahib is traditionally a Sikh seat. SAD has fielded veteran leader Virsa Singh Valtoha who said he met the Waris Panjab De head’s parents and got their blessing. Amritpal Singh’s father called this a historical mistake by SAD. In 2019, when Bibi Paramjit Kaur Khalra, the wife of slain human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra stood from the same seat, SAD fielded Jagir Kaur, former head of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. At that time SAD was in alliance with BJP; this time the party is standing alone. Bibi Khalra and SAD (Amritsar) helmed by Simranjit Singh Mann support Amritpal Singh. In 1989, Atinderpal Singh contested from Patiala while in jail, SAD (Amritsar) supported him and he won with a 12.6% margin.

On 21 Apr, a policeman deployed to guard a Sikh medical practitioner was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar. The victim, 45-year-old constable Farhad, was on security duty of hakim (herbal medical practitioner) Baba Surjeet Singh in Dheri Baghbanan, a suburban locality of Peshawar. An anonymous source said, ‘Pakistan did its best to suppress the news of those four rounds fired at Baghbanan Bazar, of which two hit the policeman and proved fatal.’ A Sikh community leader from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) said on the condition of anonymity that, ‘Both Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Daesh (ISIS) had taken responsibility for the attack but none of the shooters had been traced.’ After the attack, Sikhs began fleeing Peshawar and other parts of KPK once more to Pakistan Panjab or India to be safe from terror groups that target minorities. An earlier such exodus was in 2022, when two Sikh traders were killed. Surjeet is the brother of human rights activist Gurpal Singh, whom Fazal-ur-Rehman’s Islamic fundamentalist political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam nominated to the provincial assembly. A community leader said: ‘In the last two years, 4,000-odd Sikhs from more than 250 families have fled to Pakistan Panjab or India. Now the second exodus has started because even government-provided security has failed to save Sikh shopkeepers. Terror attacks in two years have killed 18 Sikhs and injured 11 critically.’

British Sikh lawyers have come together to set up a new arbitration center or dispute resolution forum for the community caught up in family and civil disputes. It is being described as ‘The Sikh Court’ but the term ‘court’ is unclear. The Sikh Court was launched last weekend at a ceremony at the Old Hall at Lincoln's Inn in London accompanied by religious chants. Baldip Singh, a 33-year-old London-based barrister who is the chief justice of the court and one of its founders, said the court was not a religious tribunal but aimed at assisting Sikh families in their time of need when dealing with conflict and disputes ‘in line with Sikh principles.’ A welcome first in the Sikh world, but there was no disclosure of the principles of governance. The new court will operate remotely and in person, and will comprise around 30 magistrates and 15 judges, of whom most will be women. The magistrates will mediate between parties to negotiate a settlement and direct them to learning courses to help them to work on specific issues. Created following discussions with Sikh charities, the courses would cover low-level domestic violence, anger management, gambling and substance misuse, and are available in Panjabi as well as English. If a mediation is unsuccessful, a case can be brought in front of a Sikh judge, who can give a legally binding judgment under the Arbitration Act. This could serve as a template for the worldwide community provided details are made public and some basic questions answered. For example, what if the judgment by the Sikh Court is contrary to Sikh principles and governance?

On 26 Apr, India’s National Investigative Agency (NIA) said they have arrested Inderpal Singh Gaba, a resident of Hounslow, UK, for carrying out vandalism during the protests that took place on 22 Mar 2023. The NIA has intimated the UK embassy and is likely to share with them a case file of brief facts in coming days. A source said, ‘Gaba is a Sikh of Afghanistan origin who went to London in 1995 and started a grocery store. He runs three stores called Strawberry Local Group in Greater London and all his family members live there. Last year, he traveled from Dubai to Pakistan’s Nankana Sahib, a shrine he visits frequently. On 9 Dec 2023, when he was entering India via the Wagah border to visit the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple), he was caught by security agencies at the Attari border since a Look Out Circular (LOC) was issued against him. The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs had issued LOCs against 15 people, who were identified from five video recordings of the violence. These videos were procured by an NIA team during its visit to the United Kingdom in May last year to investigate the incident and a suspected terror link involving Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. When he was detained, a team of intelligence agencies questioned him and seized his phone, from where data was extracted and analyzed. Gaba was released after questioning in December but was asked to join the investigation five times in the last four months. Gaba’s advocate Satwant Singh refused to comment on the matter.

This harvest season, rain continues to lash Indian Panjab and neighboring states and uncovered grain already in procurement centers is also not safe from vagaries of nature. (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 17, Story 4), Yet, there is some good news. A new wheat variety PBW 826 has delivered better yield. Panjab agriculture director Jaswant Singh said, ‘All districts have reported a per acre yield of nearly 22 quintals during the crop-cut experiments (a method of establishing crop yield). Compared to last year, there has been an average increase of two quintals per acre. In some places, the rise is even more than two quintals.’ PBW 826 was developed and introduced by Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in 2022 after four years of clinical and field trials. It has shown 31% more yield than the other commonly used variety HD 3086, and 17% more than HD 2967 variety. On the paddy front, in October 2023 CM Bhagwant Mann had banned the PUSA 44 variety in the state. However, the seeds of this water-guzzling variety of paddy which takes 140+ days to grow and produces more stubble continue to be easily available to farmers for sowing. Some of the commission agents, who own rice shellers too, are encouraging farmers to buy and sow this variety. Their reasons are the grain does not get discolored and the quantity of broken grains in the shelling is much less. On 26 Apr CM Mann issued another video message in which he said Panjab had saved $57M by moving to new seeds which take 90 days to grow, producing less stubble. He encouraged farmers to shift.

In 2022, India had an outbreak of the lumpy skin disease (LSD) that has so far killed more than 200,000 cows, hurting milk output. Now the Panjab govt. is discussing scientific cooperation with Brazil, known for its expertise in animal health, to curb livestock ailments that can cause farm-income losses and worsen rural distress. The plan involves monitoring occurrence of animal diseases, their prevention and management of outbreaks, with the possibility of jointly developing vaccines and other medicines, said Angelo de Queiroz Mauricio, agricultural attaché at the Brazil embassy in New Delhi. India has the world's largest population of livestock and is the world's biggest milk producer. Total annual milk production in the country was 230.58MT in 2022-23. Yet, according to the 2023 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, the per capita consumption of milk is only around 330 ml (11 fl oz) per person per day. The discussions also involve exploring Ayurveda medicines. In the European Union (EU), India is gearing up to challenge Pakistan's attempts to broaden the geographical indication (GI) tag for its Basmati rice. The extension of the GI tag for the premium variety of rice, from 14 to 48 districts in Pakistan, could have significant implications on India's export prospects to the EU. The development comes amid New Delhi's efforts to resolve all outstanding issues with the EU for a bilateral free-trade agreement, with the eighth round of negotiations expected in May or early-June. GI registration is key to access the European markets, offering benefits such as tariff relief within the 27-member bloc.

On 26 Apr, the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered the opening of the road connecting Sukhna Lake to Nayagaon. This 500 meters stretch of a road outside Panjab and Haryana chief ministers’ residences has been closed to the public for 40 years, since the era of Panjab militancy. It is set to open on 1 May on a trial basis. The court has directed Chandigarh Police to engage traffic experts for preparing a traffic management plan for the road that will be opened from 7 am and 7 pm on working days for now. The road was closed at the merge point of Uttar Marg-Vidya Path. Consequently, for almost four decades, commuters moving between Nayagaon and Sukhna Lake were forced to take long detours via adjacent sectors. Police of both states and Chandigarh opposed the idea of opening the road, citing security concerns. On the same day, the Contract Workers Union from the Panjab transport department stopped all buses coming from Panjab at the bus stand in Phase 6, Mohali – a satellite town to Chandigarh within Panjab boundary. This forced passengers to find alternative arrangements to reach Chandigarh. The workers are demanding Chandigarh Transport Union (CTU) rectify their timetable and not violate the 2008 agreement. According to that agreement, CTU buses from Chandigarh can travel 27,000 km, but were traveling up to 45,000 km, resulting in loss of passengers and income for the Panjab union.

On 25 Apr, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) commemorated Sikh and other Indian soldiers from World War I (WWI) on Anzac Day. More than 16,000 soldiers from the sub-continent were part of the Allied forces where they fought and worked alongside Anzacs. The Indian soldiers at Gallipoli predominantly comprised Sikhs and Gurkhas who fought on the front lines, transported equipment between battalions and operated the mule corps. About 1,600 Indian servicemen died at Gallipoli. Their sacrifice is carved into the Helles war memorial on the Turkish coast. But their contribution is often absent from history books. 9 Sikh soldiers also fought in Egypt with the Australian Imperial Force in 1918. In Belgium’s Flanders Field Museum, Ypres, the Belgians held an Akhand Paath (uninterrupted reading of complete Guru Granth Sahib in about 48 hours) from 26-28 Apr in memory of the Sikh soldiers from Panjab who died fighting for the British Army in Belgium during WWI. This is in association with a Chandigarh-based organization Sikhya Seekers. The museum marked the 325th anniversary of Khalsa Sajna Diwas (Inauguration of the Khalsa) at its premises and at Gurdwara Shri Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib, Chandigarh. From the Flanders Fields Museum, in a virtual address to the media, associate Sher Singh said Belgians would always be grateful to those Sikhs ‘who bravely fought against the combined Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire in the WWI. Their bravery saved Belgium from German occupation and helped win WWI. This Akhand Paath is Belgium’s tribute to Sikhs on the holy festival of Vaisakhi,’ said Singh.