Sikhs in Canada who have thrown their support for a new political entity in their homeland are furious after being linked to the Khalistani movement which wants to create a separate Sikh state.
The link was made by Punjab chief minister’s media advisor Harcharan Bains who was articulating his views on Facebook about the political fortunes of Manpreet Badal – the man contesting for the Indian state’s top job in the upcoming elections.
“I also know that everyone overseas who was supporting Khalistan is now supporting their hero Manpreet Badal. And funds will be a-flush when he visits there,” he had posted on his Facebook wall.
The posting was made in June but made public recently came ahead of Manpreet Badal’s tour of Vancouver, Toronto and other North American cities last summer.
Within hours of his Facebook post, the man responsible for handling the Punjab Chief Minister’s public interactions found himself in a fierce spat with some leading doctors, engineers and young entrepreneurs living in the US, Canada, UK and Australia reported the Times of India.
“For him to link us to the Khalistanis is rubbish…he is trying to incite hatred and cast suspicions on Sikhs who support change and want to fight corruption in Punjab,”  said Kuldip Singh Mann, a Fraser Valley businessman who attended the massive rally for Manpreet Badal held in the Cloverdale arena last summer.
More than 1,000 such NRIs or Non-Resident Indians had also inundated his wall with comments saying Bains was “politically illiterate, plain wrong or perpetuating myths put out about the Punjabis settled outside India.”
Many felt that his remarks tantamount to discrediting the NRI community as a whole and isolating it from their homeland, the paper said.
“In British Columbia, every year we host a large nagar kirtan (Vaisakhi parade) to celebrate the birth of Khalsa which attracts over 100,000 followers. It also provides our children an important opportunity to proudly display their religion. And this is what we get in return?” asked Vancouver-based Malkit Singh Heer.
Other compared the comment to racial discrimination, which belittles their ongoing struggle to earn acceptance in nations which have recently seen violence against the Sikh community, said the Times of India.
“Our amritdhari children still are subjected to forms of discrimination in various parts of the world, and CM advisor is fully aware of such ongoing violations of our religious rights. So instead of respecting such struggles, he has decided to poison our situation further,” Gagandeep Dhillon, a Melbourne-based doctor said.
After the post changed into a prickly debate, Bains promptly deleted the thread and then de-activated his account altogether.
When the Times of India sought a reaction from Bains on his “Khalistan” comments, he said: “Yes, I wrote those comments but I was not cornered by anyone. And, I did not close my account. I only temporarily disabled it. I am only calling those Khalistanis who actually are. What is slanderous about it? If they think it’s a slander or I have painted them with a slanderous brush, they are free to go to court,” Bains told the Times of India.
The idea of creating Khalistan, an independent Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab region, has its roots in the early 20th century, but gained momentum in the 1970s and 1980s. Growing discontent with an uncaring and corrupt federal government fanned the flames of Sikh nationalism and fundamentalism in Punjab.
While the movement petered out in India, the Khalistan movement has seen strong support from Sikhs overseas, especially in Canada.
Here in Canada, that Sikh fundamentalism has been directly connected to the Air India tragedy and violence in the local community.
Manpreet Badal, a 49-year-old law graduate, was the youngest finance minister of an Indian state.
Last October 13, Manpreet quit the Punjab cabinet to kick start his People’s Party of Punjab – a secular and nationalist entity, devoted to fighting corruption by getting rid of entitlements like police escorts and sirens to setting term and age limits for political leaders.
His uncle is Parkash Singh Badal, the veteran leader of the ruling Akali Dal party and chief minister of Punjab. His cousin Sukhbir Badal is the deputy chief minister and heir apparent of the Akali Dal.
There are at least a dozen other members of the Badal clan who serve as MLAs and senior government officials.
“I saw first hand what nepotism can do,” said Manpreet in a one-on-one interview with The South Asian Post in Vancouver  this summer.
Frustrated by unprecedented levels of corruption in Punjab, Manpreet Badal started his  ‘Jago Punjab’ (wake up Punjab) call, which has attracted thousands of Punjabis who have settled overseas.
After his tour of North America, Manpreet Badal said over 100,000 Punjabis who have settled abroad, including about 18,000 in Greater Vancouver will come to Punjab to support him in the Punjab state elections next year.