HERNDON, VIRGINIA (Diya TV) — Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the pro-Khalistan lawyer designated a terrorist by the Indian government, said he backed recent remarks about the Sikh community in India made by Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. In a statement on Wednesday, Pannun said he backed Gandhi’s views, in particular to the continuous Khalistan Referendum campaign led by his organization Sikhs for Justice (SFJ).
Pannun’s comments referred to the speech that Gandhi delivered to the Indian Americans in Herndon, a suburb of Washington D.C., on September 9, 2024. During the speech, Gandhi accused the RSS of promoting fascism with its views against religious and cultural communities. He added that the current struggle in India is not purely political but deeply enmeshed with the issues of cultural and religious persecution.
Pannun quoted extracts from Gandhi’s comments on the “existential threat to Sikhs in India”: “Rahul Gandhi’s statement justifies SFJ’s global Khalistan Referendum campaign.” He recalled the stress that Gandhi had laid on the right of Sikhs to follow their religion by donning their symbols like turban and kada and going to gurdwara without fear.
Pannun said that Gandhi’s stance reflects the Sikhs’ struggle within India since its independence in 1947. This, according to him, has been compounded through successive Indian regimes and furthers the justification of an independence referendum to be advanced by the SFJ for Khalistan as a Sikh homeland.
These remarks by the pro-Khalistan lawyer have come at a time when his activities and associations are under extra scrutiny. Pannun, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, is a wanted man in India on terrorism charges. Last November, U.S. federal prosecutors charged Indian national Nikhil Gupta in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate Pannun in New York. Following these allegations, India established a high-level inquiry committee to investigate the claims and the involvement of an Indian government employee.
Pannun’s endorsement of Gandhi’s statement once again flared up the debate associated with the Khalistan Referendum and the general issue of the rights of Sikhs in India. On one side, some have perceived Gandhi’s speech as major support for the objectives of the SFJ; others see it as the reflection of deeper socio-political tensions within India.
