PATIALA, PUNJAB (KP) – The Punjab police on behest of Indian authorities, arrested three innocent Sikhs, Jagmeet Singh, his mother Bibi Jasveer Kaur, and his friend Ravinder Singh on ambiguous “anti-national” charges and at the same time falsely claimed that the German government had arrested of Jasvinder Singh Multani who was working on an independence referendum organized Sikh for Justice.
Human rights organizations, and lawyers stated that all three individuals were completely innocent and condemned the India Government for attempting to defame the Sikh community just days after a dismissed Indian police officer accidently killed himself after detonating a bomb inside a bathroom at Ludhiana city’s court complex. There is no connection between these arrests and the bombing by a police insider.
The organizations also stated that Jagmeet Singh was being targeted as he had participated in the Kissan Morcha (farmers’ protest) in Delhi and became an icon when he withstood the barrage of attacks from police water cannons that were pointed at protesting famers when they were arriving at the Delhi borders in the fall of 2020. The entire water cannon incident was captured on video became viral across social media.
The Patiala, German, and Ludhiana cases are completely unrelated, but large sections of the Indian media have been broadcasting the news stories side by side to insinuate that Sikhs for Justice or “Khalistani” Sikhs were perhaps responsible for the violence in Ludhiana instead of police insiders.
The three individuals arrested in Patiala are allegedly being charged for distributing “Khalsa Raj” or “pro-Khalistan” materials and being connected to the “Sikhs for Justice” organization which is spearheading a global referendum for a peaceful cessation from Indian control.
They were charged on four counts of the Indian Penal Code:
- 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.)
- 505(2) & 505(3) conducing public mischief and
- 120B (criminal conspiracy)
Indian Lapdog Media Lies
The purported arrest of German based Jasvinder Singh Multani is completely fabricated, yet shamelessly flashed across all India media outlets. In fact, Jawinder Singh Multani was interviewed by Sikhs for Justice attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannu in which he explained there was no truth to what the India Government and Indian media was claiming.
Sikhs for Justice with Jaswinder Singh Multani
The sensational headlines along with ad-nauseam news captions of these arrests are being made to divert the public’s attention away from the government’s security failures and internal security forces sabotage that occurred at the Ludhiana court complex.
Large portions of the Indian media, often referred to as “godi or lapdog media” since it blindly parrots the message of the right-wing government without any introspection or verification, repeatedly vilifies minority communities in India with sensationalized headlines and captions and at the same time turns a blind eye to the day-to-day human rights abuses and attacks perpetrated by Hindu nationalists and government sponsored fanatics.
Kissan Morcha and Referendum
The Modi government and the lapdog media are perhaps still reeling from the humiliation of having to rescind the controversial farm laws that the Punjab’s vociferous Sikhs stood against and using these headlines and tactics to divert the public’s attention elsewhere.
Modi and Indian intelligence agencies have also been jilted by the increasing popularity of the Sikh referendum across Europe and North America and other regions and have recently deemed promoting the referendum as a criminal offence even though the Indian constitution, in theory, guarantees the freedom of speech and freedom to protest.
While these rights have been systematically and purposely squashed for minorities only, yet right-wing Hindu Nationalists are allowed to openly promote the establishment of a Hindu theoretic state and freely make threats of open warfare and genocide against Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, and the indigenous Dalits.
Examples of Violent Hindu Extremism, being ignored by mainstream Indian media and Modi government:
As Hindu Extremists Call for Killing of Muslims, India’s Leaders Keep Silent – The New York Times
Suresh Chavhanke Gives Call to ‘Fight, Die, Kill’ to Make India a ‘Hindu Rashtra’