Ritu Jha–
Bob Dhillon, the president of Sikh Gurdwara San Jose, told indica in an interview that all states in India should have their individual rights rather than the Central government dictating their every move. Dhillon stayed away from the January 28 “referendum” organized by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun‘s outlawed group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ).
“States should have their say,” Dhillon said. “There are a lot of states that are not happy with the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi is running the country. The Khalistan movement is people’s way of demanding equal rights. In India, right now, it is more about ‘Hindu Rashtra’ (Hindu Nation). Whoever does not follow their policy, they don’t want them, or like them. India is not a one-religion country.”
He added, “Each state in the USA has its own set of rights. The Federal government cannot tell them exactly what to do, and the states have their own constitutions. Each county has its own procedure for voting and each area has decentralized administration. India’s democracy always has been centralized and now more so under Modi’s rule.”
He said this “referendum” is to show to the rest of the world what the opinion of other Sikhs is. It is meant to demand equal rights for the people of Punjab.”
He harked back to the 1984 Golden Temple attack by Indian troops, a problem, Dhillon feels, “could have been solved without violence. Even right now, whatever the problem is, it can be solved without running over each other. Right now, Muslims and Christians are also being suppressed in India. Other than talking about Hindu Rashtra, there is no other thing that the Modi government speaks about. That flares up those minorities who are not getting equal rights. This Hindu Rashtra push will backfire on Modi.”
He believes that the attack on the Indian Embassy in San Francisco in 2023 was not initiated by Khalistan supporters, but that it was staged. “The fire was a staged conflict to portray Sikhs as terrorists. After checking with everybody else, we figured out that there was no Sikh community involvement in that incident. The people who went there were probably given money and some incentive to stage the demonstration.”
Dhillon is also against the sneak attacks on Hindu temples in the US where unidentified people have defaced the temples. “I am totally against any such activity. Anybody who does anything against any temple should be persecuted. However, there have been cases where the
temples have said that the incidents were self-created. A Hindu temple in Australia was attacked in a similar manner but later it turned out that it was done by the Hindus living there. They did it themselves, and then they blame others.”
Bob Dhillon: Modi govt is all about Hindu Rashtra, minorities and states should get rights
