Ritu Jha–
Chanting and carrying banners with slogans like ‘Khalistani attack on consulate is an act of terrorism’, and ‘We stand with our Indian diplomats’, Indian Americans hosted a peaceful rally in San Francisco, July 14 to show their support to diplomats, consulate staff, and the consul general.
The Indian consulate was targeted twice this year by Khalistan activists, first on March 19, and then on July 2, when an arson attempt damaged the front door and entryway, according to San Francisco fire officials. Khalistan supporters also hosted a rally on July 8 in protest against the Indian government, alleging that they are targeting Sikhs.
To show their support to the consulate staff, Indian Americans took half a day off from work and danced to the beat of drums and staged a vocal protest against showing their concerns about the security and safety of the diplomats as well as the community at large.
“There were a number of reasons behind showing our support for the diplomatic staff of the Indian consulate. We want to make San Francisco police and the law authorities aware that action should be taken against the culprits as soon as possible,” rally member Shachindra Nath told indica.
Another prominent Indian American Ashish Khurana said: “The Khalistanis have crossed the line. It is one thing to protest against India but this time they attacked the Indian Consulate. They distributed brochures that said ‘Kill India’ and put the name of our Consulate General (CG) and the Indian Ambassador.”
On the delay in police action on the pro-Khalistan demonstration and increasing aggression, Khurana told indica: “The CG told us that they have set up a Special Investigation Team to probe the incidents and they have also engaged the FBI in the investigation. Diplomatic security is the number one thing for the state.”
“Earlier, when Khalistani activists protested against India, though we didn’t like it, we thought it is their right. Now, they threatened our ambassador and Consul General, They said ‘Kill India’ and then went and set fire. That’s too much. Yeah. Now even members of the Sikh community, who used to just come in just to show up for support, they’re not coming to their protests because now the Sikh community also understands that these guys have crossed the line. Now, whoever shows up, their pictures would be there and everyone will be investigated.”
Khurana thinks that the US government has still not taken the threat posed by pro-Khalistan supporters seriously: “I don’t think there is the kind of seriousness that those fires demand. San Francisco police are investigating, but I think it’s got to take a lot more attention. I saw that Congressman Ro Khanna tweeted about the protest and some other people are took up the issue on social media, but this needs a lot more attention. Just tweeting and talking about it is not going to work.”
Dilip Amin, who stays in Burlingame in California, was among the protestors who stood up for the Indian Consulate’s diplomatic staff. “This is for my country, the least I could do is mark my presence, and show that we are concerned, and tell the Indian Consulate that ‘we are with you’.”
Amin however has a slightly different perspective on the increasing aggression and the bold flyers that were displayed by the pro-Khalistan protestors. “In every community, there are extremists and nice people. I know so many Sikh people who are peaceable people. But, what the Khalistanis are doing is trying to drum up support by taking a violent approach but that won’t work in the US. They had desecrated the Mahatma Gandhi statue, set fire near the Indian Consulate, and then distributed the rather bold flyer. And the worst is that this may be just the beginning, who knows where it may end. So, the community needs to start getting more awakened and showing the strength of their unity. We have to tell the violent pro-Khalistan protestors that if there are anti-forces, there are pro-forces too. And we will show our strength that we have a concern and we want to be there to express it.”
“We expressed our concerns to the consul general. When somebody asked him why consul general is not raising a voice against the pro-Khalistan protests, he explained that the consulates are protected by the host country. He said that the US government will do everything to protect the consulate. He said that a protective fence had been put around the consulate campus,” Amin added.
Talking about the prominent pro-Khalistan movement activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, declared a ‘wanted terrorist’ by the Indian government, who was shot dead in Surrey, Canada in June, Amin said, “Media reports say that three Sikh leaders were assassinated and that the Sikh community is getting more infuriated and getting more violent in that reaction. They are acting under the assumption that the Indian government has a role to play in their deaths, but that is not right. Unless it has been proven, they cannot blame somebody else and carry
out violent protests.”
Adding on Amin says that peace is the right approach. “Violent protests may work elsewhere but not in America…that’s not the way to win sympathy from the average American. Instead, they should be peaceful and, in that way, they will be more effective in conveying whatever message they have. I’ve been in America for 45 years now and I have seen the system work,” he said.
“I have been a director at the Peninsula Multifaith Coalition for the last 6-7 years. As soon as they heard that this Gandhi statue was desecrated by the pro-Khalistan supporters, they got so angry that they wrote an article against the violent act in a local newspaper. This is the reaction the violence drew from American citizens who are
unbiased on this issue. The point is that if they take the violent approach, they are not going to get sympathy from average Americans, especially those leftist liberal Americans. So far the Khalistanis may have managed to get their sympathy blaming Hindutva but the violence will turn the average American against them,” Amin added.
Amin does not see a solution to the Khalistan issue in the near future. He believes that the issue is going to keep festering for years to come. “The demand for an independent Khalistan is not going to happen and so the frustration will only grow and they will keep on protesting or expressing their angst in different ways. I think it’s going to be ongoing for a while, at least for the next 50 to 100
years.
