SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) —
About 150 advocates for Khalistan came back to the former San Francisco Indian Consulate on India’s Republic Day, the same building that was vandalized and nearly burned to the ground multiple times in recent years.
Their cries for sovereignty were met with silence since no one was on the building grounds except a security guard. San Francisco police officers monitored the scene, noting to Diya TV the irony of a protest being held outside an empty building. The Indian Consulate moved recently to a much more secure location in downtown San Francisco.
This year’s proceedings was a far cry from a year ago outside San Francisco City Hall, where about 25,000 Khalistani supporters voted in a non-binding referendum that featured an appearance by the heavily guarded Sikhs for Justice leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a man India has designated a terrorist. American law enforcement says Pannun was the target of a murder for hire plot, an effort that is alleged to have links to the Indian government.
One year ago, there was no police presence in San Francisco’s Civic Center, just park rangers. Khalistan supporters sparred with each other and even threatened the Diya TV team multiple times while on camera during our live broadcast.
This latest Khalistan event was more like a Sunday get-together. They drank chai, ate channa masala and rice and chanted on a loudspeaker “Kill Modi (politics),” a not-so veiled threat to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Some took to the microphone to complain that Modi was seizing their ancestral lands in India. Given that the suspects of the two attempted arsons on the former San Francisco Indian Consulate are still at large, it is no surprise the Modi government is taking a hardline stance against Khalistani separatists.
On his most recent tour of the United States to attend President Trump’s inauguration, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said in a press conference “the arson attack on our consulate in San Francisco is very, very serious, and we expect accountability. We would like to see those responsible held accountable.”
Last year, the overwhelming majority of the crowd at the San Francisco referendum were recent immigrants from India, some of whom mocked the American immigration system live on our broadcast.
This year, it was apparent people stayed away from being seen in public as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were walking around San Francisco neighborhoods to arrest those found to be in violation of American immigration law. There are also community reports of ICE activity at Sikh gurdwaras, many of which are known venues fostering the Khalistan movement.
