Modi’s Tricolour Gimmick Backfires as 75 Years of Colonialism Exposed
London: 17 August 2022: When Indian PM Modi called for every house to fly the Indian flag on Indian Independence Day this week, he hadn’t bargained for the robust response from the Sikhs. He seems to have forgotten that the Sikh flag was famously hoisted by Sikh nationalists on the Red Fort in Delhi last year, in an act of defiance which sent the Hindutva establishment into a tailspin. Inevitably, his call this week was met with an impressive reply from Sikhs across Punjab and the worldwide diaspora, who opted to fly Sikh flags to drive home the point that it is Sikh sovereignty that counts in the Sikh homeland.
In London, an array of Sikh organisations protested in front of the Indian High Commission against the forcible denial of self-determination in Indian-controlled Punjab since the disastrous British decolonisation of 1947. Seeing Indian rule as simply the switch from one colonial rule to another, Sikhs have long campaigned for their rights as a nation, under international law, to restore their sovereign rule in their homeland. The protest earlier this week exposed the nature and brutality of the fascist Hindutva project that has tried to neutralise Sikh nationhood over 75 years of genocide, involving systematic and massive human rights abuses, unlawful land and river water theft as well as linguistic, cultural and religious marginalisation. The protestors vocally highlighted the need to confront this majoritarian onslaught by asserting Sikh sovereignty and the inherent aspiration of freedom that comes with it.
As Sikh flags were proudly hoisted, Khalistani slogans raised and images of Sikh political prisoners displayed, the discomfort of High Commission officials was clear. A pathetic show of two counter protestors was quickly over and their tricolour flags were later seen being collected from the gutter by police officers.
Speaking on behalf of the Council of Khalistan, Ranjit Singh Srai condemned India’s colonialism and said it was time for the international community to tackle the Hindutva fascism that is not only targeting Sikhs, Muslims, Dalits and Christians within Indian-controlled territory but is also dangerously aggressive towards neighbouring states risking nuclear war in the region. Joga Singh, Speaker of the World Sikh Parliament highlighted the plight of Sikh political prisoners in India as a clear manifestation of the ongoing oppression of a nation that simply want to live peaceably in freedom in its own territory.
Rehana Ali of Tehreek-e-Kashmir urged suppressed nations to work together to defeat the Hindutva project in Kashmir, Punjab and the north eastern border areas where Nagas, Assamese, Bodos, Manipuris and others have also been forcibly denied individual and collective human rights for decades.
Dupinderjit Singh of Sikhs for Justice said the massive response from Sikhs in terms of participation in the ‘Referendum 2020’ process demonstrated that the Sikhs not only value their national rights, but were determined to exercise them to bring about freedom in Punjab.
Manpreet Singh of the World Sikh Parliament urged policy makers across the capitals of the world to recognise the geo-political necessity of peaceably resolving the potential lethal conflicts in South Asia, where India’s belligerence has raised the stakes considerably over recent years, by dismantling Indian colonial rule. The cost of failure is already too high and the time to act is now, he said whilst stating that a buffer state of Khalistan would be the only way to separate rival nuclear-armed states in the flashpoint region that seem otherwise destined for a catastrophic showdown.
