Gurpreet Singh  

If the insensitivity being shown by the Indian state towards a physically challenged former Delhi University Professor is any indication, the government of the world’s so called largest democracy lacks compassion.  

Wheelchair bound G.N. Saibaba, who is ninety percent disabled below the waist, is incarcerated after being convicted for life after being branded as Maoist sympathizer.   

He is among several known scholars and human rights defenders detained for merely standing up for the poor and marginalized, especially Adivasis (Indigenous peoples), who continue to face displacement from their traditional territories by the extraction industry looking for access to mineral-rich lands with the backing of the state. 

Maoist insurgents, fighting a class war, have been active in tribal areas, where Adivasis often take up arms due to the high-handedness of the police and security forces. Many Adivasis see them as protectors in their fight for survival from barbarity of the state. 

Saibaba’s only crime was raising his voice for the indigenous peoples of India and religious minorities.  

Although a UN committee has urged for his immediate release on compassionate grounds, the Indian authorities continue to oppose any attempt to bail him out.  

On Saturday, he lost his ailing mother, despite attempts by his lawyer to get him released on bail due to his deteriorating health and the growing threat of COVID 19 in overcrowded Indian jails.  

74-year-old Gokarakonda Suryavathi was suffering with cancer, but Saibaba's lawyer failed to get him allowed see her through video-conferencing. He had informed the jail authorities about her condition and her wish to see her son one last time, but they did not even reply. 

All this is in sharp contrast to what Indian Prime Minister had stated at the beginning of the campaign against COVID 19.  

Narendra Modi had called for battling Corona (COVID 19) with Karuna (compassion), but seeing what Saibaba and his family are being forced to go through, his actions certainly do not match his words. If Saibaba’s condition does not evoke Karuna then what does? 

Gurpreet Singh  

July 31 marks 140th birth anniversary of a renowned Indian author, the late Munshi Premchand.  

Born as Dhanpat Rai in British India, he was forced to adopt an immortal name after his collection of short stories was seized by the authorities who found them to be seditious. 

These stories, which reflect the struggle of working class and the oppressed groups under British occupied India, and highlighted the freedom movement, were provocative for the foreign rulers. By all standards, their response was an assault on free expression. One such collection translated in Punjabi bears the title,  “Munshi Premchand’s stories that were confiscated by the British.”    

Apart from focussing on the liberation struggle, Premchand was among the founding fathers of progressive literature. He showcased the richness of pluralist culture of India through his novels and short fiction.  

His work has become even more relevant today, under a right wing Hindu nationalist government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Ever since he came to power in 2014, attacks on religious minorities and political dissidents have grown. So much so, the authors and scholars are being frequently detained and thrown in jails for questioning the power.  

Ironically, Modi is a Member of Parliament from Varanasi, the birthplace of Premchand. It is not surprising to see how he is trying to appropriate the late writer, who continues to dominate the literary landscape of the country. Last year,in his radio address to the nation, Modi went to the extent of claiming that he was deeply touched by the stories of Premchand.         

If Modi really means what he says, then he should start releasing all the scholars and intellectuals who have been detained by his government for questioning the power. Among them is an 81-year-old revolutionary poet Varavara Rao, who was hit by COVID 19 in jail, and Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba, who is disabled below the waist. The list is long and includes published authors, like Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha. These individuals were arrested on trumped up charges for merely raising voices for the poor and marginalised.  

Also, Modi’s ideology completely contradicts that of Premchand. Whereas Modi wants to transform India into a Hindu theocracy, Premchand’s work stands for an inclusive and tolerant society.  

Modi's government is behaving no differently than the British rulers, who seized the short stories of Premchand to crush resistance. If he cannot do this, then he should at least stop lying about his feelings in public.  

*** 

Gurpreet Singh  

The news of Chinmoy Banerjee’s death has greatly saddened the South Asian community in BC.  

80-year-old scholar and activist of Indian heritage, Chin Daa, as we affectionately called him, was not keeping well for the past several days.  

He passed away on the morning of July 29, leaving behind a powerful legacy of tireless activism.  

He previously taught English at Simon Fraser University and was deeply involved in social justice movements.  

His demise, at a time when bigotry continues to grow all over the world, has caused an irreparable loss to his comrades. Until two weeks ago, he was actively trying to organize each one of us against racism. I had an opportunity to attend one of the two zoom meetings he had hosted to figure out how to work in solidarity with Black Lives Matter in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by the police in US. Little did we realize that those might be his last interactions with us on such an intense issue.   

As a true humanist and die hard secularist, he has been consistently raising his voice against state violence and repression of minorities anywhere, including India where he was born in January, 1940. He was among the founders of the Indian People’s Association of North America and South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy, the advocacy groups of progressive South Asians dedicated to the cause of challenging attacks on democratic and civil rights of the people. He was also instrumental behind the formation of BC Organization to Fight Racism.  

He not only denounced the attacks on Sikhs during 1980s by the then-so called secularist Congress government of India, but remained vocal against the outright sectarian and anti-minority policies of the currently ruling right wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) led by controversial Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  

The BJP is determined to turn India into a Hindu theocracy, and believes in the ideology of Hindutva, which is based on extreme political Hinduism that excludes Muslims and Christians as “outsiders” and tries to assimilate Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains.  

Banerjee was among those few in lower mainland who opposed Modi and his Hindutva and protested against his visit to Vancouver in 2015.  

Attacks on religious minorities, especially Muslims, have grown in India ever since Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014.  

He had invited many fabulous speakers from India to educate the world about what is going on under Modi.  By virtue of knowing him closely, I had an opportunity to meet a number of them. Among them is Anand Teltumbde, an established author, who was arrested in April this year on trumped up charges for merely raising a voice against the Indian establishment. Teltumbde has been questioning the power through his writings. He is among many other scholars who are being incarcerated for challenging the status quo.  

Together with Chin Daa, we also held a protest outside the Indian consulate when another Indian scholar, Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba, was first arrested and thrown in jail in 2014.  

Wheelchair-bound Saibaba, who is ninety percent disabled below the waist, had been speaking out against evictions of Adivasis (Indigenous peoples) of India from their traditional lands, by the Indian state in the name of development only to help the extraction industry. Since Maoist insurgents are active in those areas, Saibaba was branded as a Maoist, thrown in jail, and later convicted for life despite his disability. The Modi government refuses to release him on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.  

Banerjee had also given me opportunities to speak at public events organized by him and extended his help to Radical Desi, a magazine started by myself and also Indians Abroad for Pluralist India, a group we created in response to state sponsored violence against minorities and political dissidents under Modi.  

With Banerjee gone, we all need to carry on with his incomplete mission for a just society, as the struggle is not over yet and is only likely to become more difficult.  

Rest in Peace, Chin Daa. You will always be missed.

Gurpreet Singh  

July 28 marks 50 years of the extra-judicial killing of an 82-year-old former Indian freedom fighter by none other than the police force of his own nation.  

Bujha Singh, who deserved state honours for participating in the struggle to rid India of the British occupation, was instead murdered by the police for his association with revolutionary communist movement sparked by an uprising of landless tillers who've been fighting against the rich and the elites since the 1960s. 

Singh was part of the Ghadar party, that was launched in 1913 by Indian immigrants who lived in B.C., Washington, Oregon, and California to rid India of foreign occupation trough armed resistance. Later, it spread its wings and those who lived in faraway places such as South America also established branches. 

Singh, who worked in Argentina, was instrumental in creating a chapter in that country. Formally known as Hindi Pacific Association, it came to be known as the Ghadar Party after the launching of its official newspaper called Ghadar, which means "mutiny" in Urdu. 

The Ghadar Party believed in social justice and equality. Its members desired to establish a democratic, secular, and socialistic republic that provided equal opportunities to everyone with no discrimination against the poor or marginalized. 

Many Ghadar activists returned to India hoping to start an insurgency, only to face the gallows or life imprisonment. They did not get the desired support from the public, as the popular leadership of the independence movement was in the hands of moderates, who denounced political violence. 

Those who survived carried on their struggle even in post-independent India after the British left in 1947. Among them was Singh, who became a die-hard Communist. 

Following an uprising in the Naxalbari village of West Bengal by poor farmers, who claimed a right to the land, there was a campaign of police repression. People like Singh parted ways with the mainstream Communist parties to join the radicals. All reports indicate that he died in a staged shootout by Punjab police. From his perspective, India's independence was merely symbolic, really just transfer of power between the ruling classes of Britain and India. 

Influenced by Ghadar ideology, the revolutionary communists have continued their struggle.  

Half century later, the history of Singh is being repeated in the form of state repression of those who are in the forefront of this fight. Among them is a Telugu radical poet and political activist, Varavara Rao.  

The 81-year-old Rao has been recently tested positive for COVID 19, leaving his family and admirers deeply worried.   

In spite of old age and poor health, he was being held in Mumbai jail, then shifted to hospital only recently, after his condition deteriorated.  

Arrested in August 2018, he was thrown into prison on trumped up charges after being branded as a Maoist ideologue, accused of being involved in a plot to assassinate right wing Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These allegations have been strongly refuted by his relatives and supporters, who believe that all this is being done to stifle voices of dissent.   

Rao is among several known scholars and human rights defenders detained for merely standing up for the poor and marginalized, especially Adivasis (Indigenous peoples), who continue to face displacement from their traditional territories by the extraction industry looking for access to mineral-rich lands with the backing of the state. 

Maoist insurgents, fighting a class war, have been active in tribal areas, where Adivasis often take up arms due to the high-handedness of the police and security forces. The roots of their movement can be traced back to the bloody events of Naxalbari. Many Adivasis see Maoists as protectors in their fight for survival from barbarity of the state. 

Rao’s health condition worsened over the last several days, as the threat of COVID 19 hovers over badly crammed Indian jails. Despite many petitions and protests seeking the release of political prisoners under these extraordinary circumstances, the authorities have refused to release him on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. There is a a feeling among his supporters that the Indian state wants to finish him legally and send a message to the opposition.  

If this was not enough, India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) opposed the bail application for Rao, claiming that he was trying to take “undue benefit of his situation”.   

All this only reflects on India’s so called democracy.  Rather than trying to get to the bottom of the problem of social unrest caused by systemic injustice and inequality, the state is going after veterans such as Singh or Rao, to instil fear in the minds of political dissidents. And to achieve that end, Indian officials can go to any length.  

It’s a shame that Indian society claims to be respectful of its seniors, but remains indifferent to these horrific stories. The tales of these two men shows that the Indian system’s brutal side remains unchanged even as the disparity between the rich and the poor has grown over the past 50 years. There is no respite to the most underprivileged and underserved, despite tall claims of development and progress.   

*** 

Gurpreet Singh  

If the insensitivity being shown towards a senior revolutionary poet by the Indian state is any indication, the government of the world’s so called largest democracy lacks compassion.  

81-year-old Varavara Rao, a well-respected political activist and poet, has been recently tested positive for COVID 19, leaving his family and admirers deeply worried.   

In spite of old age and poor health, he was being held in Mumbai jail, but shifted to hospital only recently, after his condition deteriorated.  

Arrested in August 2018, he was thrown into prison on trumped up charges after being branded as a Maoist ideologue and accused of being involved in a plot to assassinate right wing Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These allegations have been strongly refuted by his relatives and supporters, who believe that all this is being done to stifle voices of dissent.   

Rao is among several known scholars and human rights defenders who are being detained for merely standing up for the poor and marginalized, especially Adivasis (Indigenous peoples), who continue to face displacement from their traditional territories by the extraction industry looking for access to mineral-rich lands with the backing of the state. 

Maoist insurgents, fighting a class war, have been active in tribal areas, where Adivasis often take up arms due to the high-handedness of the police and security forces. Many Adivasis see them as protectors in their fight for survival from barbarity of the state. 

Rao’s health condition had worsened over the last several days, as the threat of COVID 19 was hovering over badly crammed Indian jails. Despite many petitions and protests seeking the release of political prisoners under these extraordinary circumstances, the authorities have refused to release him on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. There is a feeling among his supporters that the Indian state wants to finish him legally and send a message to the opposition.  

If this was not enough, India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) opposed the bail application for Rao, claiming that he was trying to take “undue benefit of his situation”.  All this is in sharp contrast to what Indian Prime Minister stated at the beginning of the campaign against COVID 19. Narendra Modi had called for battling Corona (COVID 19) with Karuna (compassion), but seeing what Rao is being forced to go through, his actions do not certainly match his words. If Rao’s condition does not evoke Karuna then what does?  

In the meantime, the Indian government remains adamant not to release a disabled scholar and former Delhi University Prof. GN. Saibaba either.  

Ninety percent disabled below the waist, wheelchair bound Saibaba is being incarcerated after being convicted for life, after being branded as a Maoist sympathizer.  His only crime was that he has been raising his voice for the Adivasis and religious minorities. Although the UN had urged for his immediate release on compassionate grounds, the Indian authorities continue to oppose any attempt to bail him out.  

*** 

Indians Abroad for Pluralist India honoured New Westminster City Councillor Chuck Puchmayr with a medal of courage on Sunday, July 19, for bringing a motion against India’s highly discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).  

The medal was presented to Puchmayr by the IAPI President Parshottam Dosanjh and another member of the group, and prominent poet Amrit Diwana, at an event held at Guru Nanak Sikh Temple, Surrey-Delta.

The officials from Guru Nanak Sikh Temple and Abbotsford-based Banda Singh Bahadur Society also honoured him for his role behind Bhai Mewa Singh Day proclamation on the occasion.

Mewa Singh was the first Sikh political activist to be executed in Canada on January 11, 1915, for assassinating controversial Immigration Inspector William Hopkinson. Singh was a part of the revolutionary group that fought against the British occupation of India and racism abroad. Hopkinson was patronizing a network of spies within the South Asian community to weaken the freedom struggle and was complicit in the murders of two community leaders by a British agent inside a gurdwara in September, 1914.

Early this year, following the efforts of Chuck Puchmayr, the City of New Westminster unanimously proclaimed January 11 as “Bhai Mewa Singh Day”.

Puchmayr had moved a motion against CAA on March 9, but it was passed with a majority vote on July 13. The motion was approved more than four months later in a 5-1 vote, with one city councillor absent. The voting was delayed because of COVID-19 restrictions and public health emergency in the province. The motion makes New Westminster the first Canadian city to denounce the CAA, which blatantly discriminates against Muslim refugees coming to India from neighbouring countries, and only allows non-Muslim refugees to make India their home.

The law was passed at the behest of the right-wing Hindu nationalist government, under which attacks on religious minorities and political dissidents have grown over the last several years. Indian police continue to hound CAA opponents. 

The law violates India's constitution, which guarantees religious equality, and sparked angry protests all across the country. Demonstrations have been held in Canada as well, with Puchmayr attending one rally in Surrey days before the motion was tabled. 

The New Westminster motion is a huge setback for pro-India lobby groups, which have been trying to prevent it from being approved.

Puchmayr read out the motion, which asks the Canadian government to intervene. Speaking to the congregation, he acknowledged that this was one of the most difficult motiona, which eventually passed with the support of Mayor Jonathan Cote and his colleagues.

Others who spoke on the occasion included the President of Guru Nanak Sikh temple, Hardeep Singh Nijjar; the President of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Society, Ranjit Singh Khalsa; the President of Sukh Sagar Gurdwara in New Westminster, Harbhajan Singh Atwal; and IAPI spokesperson Gurpreet Singh. Diwana also read out a poem dedicated to Mewa Singh at the event.

***

Gurpreet Singh

Ever since the Bollywood star tested positive for COVID 19, the social media is flooded with messages for his speedy recovery.

Amitabh Bachchan and three generations of his family, including son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai, and their eight-year-old daughter, were tested positive. This has obviously alarmed their fan following, as husband and wife too, like the family patriarch, have acted in the film industry.

The development has been widely reported in the international media, including CBC and Global, and Bachchan's admirers are publicly praying for his well-being.  

Though all this is understandable, considering the stature of Bachchan clan, there is a complete silence and lack of outrage over the inhuman treatment being meted out to people’s poet Varavara Rao.    

81-year-old Rao is not only a revolutionary Telugu poet, but a well-respected political activist. In spite of old age and poor health, he continues to be detained in Mumbai jail.

Arrested in August 2018, he was and thrown into prison on trumped up charges after being branded as a Maoist ideologue and accused of being involved in a plot to assassinate right wing Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These allegations have been strongly refuted by his relatives and supporters, who believe that all this is being done to stifle voices of dissent.  

Rao is among several known scholars and human rights defenders who are being detained for merely standing up for the poor and marginalized, especially Adivasis (Indigenous peoples), who continue to face displacement from their traditional territories by the extraction industry looking for access to mineral-rich lands with the backing of the state.

Maoist insurgents, fighting a class war, have been active in tribal areas, where Adivasis often take up arms due to the high-handedness of the police and security forces. Many Adivasis see them as protectors in their fight for survival from barbarity of the state.

Rao’s health condition has worsened over the last several days, even as the threat of COVID 19 continues to grow in overcrowded Indian jails. Despite many petitions and protests seeking the release of political prisoners under these extraordinary circumstances, the authorities have refused to release him on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. There is a feeling among his supporters that the Indian state wants to finish him legally and send a message to the opposition. 

Those who are really concerned about the health of Bachchan and his privileged family must not overlook the struggle of Rao, who is being persecuted for his advocacy of the underdog.

Unlike Bachchan, who has largely remained indifferent to the ongoing repression of religious minorities in India, individuals like Rao haven been putting their lives at risk for the rights of ordinary people. It’s time to stand up for real and not fake celluloid heroes.

Gurpreet Singh

The University of British Columbia has conferred an honourary degree on India-based social justice activist Teesta Setalvad.

An award-winning journalist, who played a prominent role in the campaign for justice for the victims of a state sponsored massacre of Muslims in 2002, Setalvad is among the ten recipients of this year’s Honorary Degree of UBC.

Setalvad has been to Vancouver twice. During her 2018 visit to Canada, she spoke at UBC. Anne Murphy from the university's Department of Asian Studies was instrumental behind her nomination for the degree.

The 2002 pogrom against Muslims took place in Gujarat, under the watch of current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the state Chief Minister back then. Though Modi was never convicted, Setalvad’s memoir Foot Soldier of the Constitution indicts him for the bloodshed.

Thousands of Muslims were murdered by supporters of Modi’s right wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims caught fire, leaving more than 50 people dead. One commission of inquiry later found that it was a pure accident, but Modi had blamed it on Muslims, inciting violence against the minority community. He had reportedly asked the police to look the other way and let Hindu mobs vent their anger on helpless Muslims.

Modi was denied visa by US until he became the Prime Minister in 2014.  

Setalvad’s fight for justice and closure continues even today. She has faced threats and intimidation because of her daring work.

As a staunch secularist, she has also been critical of the anti-Sikh massacre engineered by the Congress party in 1984. Innocent Sikhs were slaughtered across India by mobs led by Congress activists following the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. This was despite the fact that Congress claims to be a secular alternative to the BJP, which aspires to turn India into a Hindu theocracy.

Ever since the BJP came to power, attacks on religious minorities and political dissidents have grown in the world’s so called largest democracy.

***

Gurpreet Singh 

Today marks 35 years of the Air India bombings that left 331 people dead on June, 23 1985. 

This was the worst incident in the history of aviation terror before 9/11. 

Widely blamed on Sikh separatists in Canada seeking revenge for repression of Sikhs in India during 1984, the investigation and trial of the case culminated into one lone conviction of alleged bomb maker Inderjit Singh Reyat, who pleaded guilty of manslaughter.

Two other suspects,  Greater Vancouver Sikh millionaire Ripudaman Singh Malik, and Kamloops sawmill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri, were acquitted in 2005 for lack of evidence.

Bagri was associated with the now-banned Babbar Khalsa, a Sikh extremist group whose leader, the late Talwinder Singh Parmar, was said to be the mastermind of the conspiracy. He died at the hands of Indian police in 1992 under mysterious circumstances. Other potential suspects were never charged.

Ajay Basaria, the current Indian High Commissioner, has made a brief statement on social media condemning the incident. Due to COVID 19, most commemorative events are planned online; otherwise, Indian officials do not miss an opportunity to personally attend memorial services across Canada.  

India has been consistently raising this issue with Canada for years. The present Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the memorial site in Ontario during his 2015 official tour of Canada. When Malik and Bagri were acquitted, the Indian government had expressed its outrage.  

However, recent developments suggest that India has lost any moral right to talk about Air India in particular and terrorism in general.

Firstly, the Indian government gave visa to Malik to visit his birthplace late last year. This is despite the fact that until then, India has been accusing him of being a financier of the conspirators. In fact, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian Bruce Josephson declared that Malik's acquittal “was not a declaration of innocence” while rejecting his claim for compensation for losses incurred by him on his legal defence.

Secondly, Indian agents continue to attack certain Sikh temples that glorify Parmar as a martyr of their cause. Canadian politicians who often visit these temples are frequently blasted by pro-India lobby groups. If Malik’s acquittal is a yardstick for getting Indian visa, there is no point going after the supporters of Parmar, as he never got a fair trial to prove his innocence. He was rather killed in an extra judicial manner.  

Considering what India is going through under a right wing Hindu nationalist government led by Modi, what right has India to talk tough on terrorism? 

Modi himself nominated a controversial female Hindu ascetic to run for the office in last year’s general election. Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a Member of Parliament from Modi’s own Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), was involved in a bombing targeted at the Muslim community in 2008. Close to 10 people had died and many were injured. Thakur, who was cooling her heels in jail, was given bail to run for the parliament.

If this was not enough, the BJP government helped in the acquittal of Swami Aseemanand, another Hindu ascetic involved in the 2007 rail bombing that left close to 70 people dead. Most victims were Pakistani Muslims. His proximity with Modi is well documented.

Notably, these two individuals did not meet the same fate as Parmar. Apparently, India treats extremists belonging to the Hindu majority differently. 

Even otherwise, terror attacks on Muslims and other religious minorities have grown in India ever since Modi came to power in 2014. All this indicates that India is blatantly patronising terrorism, which takes away its legitimacy to question other countries on this issue.

To put things in perspective, Indian government’s decision to give visa to Malik might have to do something with the shrewd politics of Modi to create a wedge between Muslims and Sikhs in places like Canada, where the two communities have come together to challenge ultra-Hindu nationalism.

Modi’s calculation might be based on the fact that the Sikhs were subjected to state violence in India under a previous Congress government. In spite of its tall claims of being secular, Congress had engineered a Sikh massacre in 1984, following the murder of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Nevertheless, Modi repeated that against Muslims in 2002. He was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, which witnessed a similar pogrom after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims caught fire, killing more than 50 people. Modi had blamed that incident on Muslims, even though one commission of enquiry had established that it was a pure accident. 

Instead of shedding crocodile tears for the Air India victims and playing with their emotions, the Indian state needs to look hard at itself in the mirror. Blaming others all the time isn’t helpful. It’s time for India to change its ways and treat its minorities humanely. Either deal with terrorists of all shades alike or stop being selective. 

Members and supporters of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) held a rally for D.S. Bindra outside the Indian passport and visa application center in Surrey on the afternoon of Sunday, June 21.

An advocate and activist, Bindra has been named in a charge sheet filed by Delhi police against individuals accused of inciting violent protests against India’s discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which is unfair to Muslim refugees coming to India from neighbouring countries.

Bindra’s only fault was that he had organized langar (community kitchen) for the peaceful protestors in Delhi, in accordance with his Sikh traditions.

This follows the arrests of several activists, including Safoora Zargar, a pregnant woman, for raising their voices against CAA passed by the right wing Hindu nationalist government. This is in sharp contrast to leniency toward supporters of the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) who actually instigated hate and mob violence against Muslims. 

Canada-based IAPI came into being in response to growing attacks on religious minorities and political dissidents under the BJP government since 2014.   

On Mother’s Day last month, the IAPI held a car rally outside the same venue for Safoora due to COVID 19. The June 21 rally was also kept very small because of health emergency guidelines, and the physical distance was maintained by those in attendance.  

The participants held signs reading, “Serving Langar is not a crime” and “We stand with D.S. Bindra”, besides those reading, “No to CAA” and “Free Safoora”. They raised slogans against state violence in India. Since June 21 is National Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the rally started with a moment of silence for Chantel Moore and Rodney Levi, an indigenous woman and a man who died at the hands of police recently in New Brunswick.

The speakers were unanimous in their demand for freedom of Safoora and other political prisoners, and condemned the highhandedness of Delhi Police against Bindra. The Sikh activists who showed up felt that it was a direct assault on their faith, and came as a rude shock to the community which is grieving the military attack on their holiest shrine, the Golden Temple Complex by Indian forces 36 years ago in the month of June, 1984.

Those who spoke on the occasion included former spokesman of Gurdwara Dashmesh Darbar, Gian Singh Gill, the president of Guru Nanak Singh Temple, Surrey-Delta Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Sikh scholar Charanjit Singh Sujjon, independent Sikh activist Kulwinder Singh, prominent anti-racism educator Annie Ohana, well known progressive Punjabi poet Amrit Diwana, and IAPI members, Sayed Wajahat and Gurpreet Singh.