Washington, DC – Condemning the glorification of terrorism and threats against Air India by Sikhs for Justice General Counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the United States said that violence, or the threat of violence, is never an acceptable form of activism.
In two recent videos, Pannun warned the Sikh community not to travel with Air India on November 19, 2023, as it would be dangerous. He also threatened that New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport would be closed that day. (November 19 is late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s birthday. It is also the final of the ongoing ICC World Cup.) This is reminiscent of threats by Khalistani activists before the Air India bombing of 1985. In a separate video, Pannun glorifies the political assassination of General Vaidya and boasts that the Sikhs took revenge on Indira Gandhi and General Vaidya. He praised the killers of General Vaidya, referencing a display at a nagar kirtan (religious procession) in a gurdwara in Yuba City, California.
When asked by GSV whether the US thinks it is acceptable to threaten an airline and glorify terrorism in the name of free speech, a State Department spokesperson responded, “Violence, or the threat of violence, is never an acceptable form of activism.”
“Why would the United States of America not take action against Mr. Pannun,” asks former Canadian federal minister and British Columbia 33rd Premier Ujjal Dosanjh. “Why would they not prosecute Mr. Pannun for terrorizing US citizens who might happen to be Sikh from flying Air India? Why haven’t they picked him up? American and Canadian politicians are equally impotent and cowardly in the face of Khalistani terror.”
Dosanjh notes that when rallies in support of Hamas were taken out, and violence was glorified, Mr. Trudeau was very quick to condemn that glorification, but he can’t seem to bring himself around to condemning what Pannun just said. “It’s puzzling and saddening for me that my Prime Minister and our politicians will not take glorification of terrorism seriously when it affects one community and will do so when it affects another community,” said Dosanjh.
Veteran Canadian journalist Terry Milewski notes that Pannun’s threats about Air India are very reminiscent of the message that went out two weeks before the Air India bombing of 1985 when Parmar and Bagri had visited Toronto’s Malton gurdwara, which is the biggest gurdwara in Canada. The police have a report of what the congregation was told, which was not to fly Air India as it may be unsafe to do so. “So that was the message then, and it seems this is the message now when he’s saying it could be dangerous to fly Air India. This is pretty serious because it has a history and an extremely violent one at that,” says Milewski.
Milewski adds that Canada has normalized the use of threats and the glorification of terrorists and terrorism. “The images, the martyr posters of Talwinder Parmar, mastermind of the Air India bombing and therefore Canada’s worst ever mass murder, have been normalized and they’ve done that for years. I’ve been wailing about it for 20 years, and nobody takes it seriously. Canada doesn’t have a law against the glorification of terrorism. We do have a law against incitement of violence, but it isn’t somehow clear to Canadian legislators that the glorification of terrorism is very often the incitement of violence.”
Khalistani extremism is pervasive in Canada and the UK, and extremist groups use online platforms to spread hate speech and radicalize individuals, said Sikh activist Puneet Sahani, who coordinates the content on Sikhs for Enlightenment Values Association (SEVA). These groups are skilled at exploiting democratic freedoms to undermine society from within. He cites the example of the Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Vikram Doraiswami, who was barred from entering a gurdwara in Scotland by Khalistani extremists who traveled from London. “It was not the local congregation. And the gurdwara also issued a statement condemning what happened.” Khalistani extremists are becoming more visible in the US as well, and gurdwaras are becoming more radicalized. It is not uncommon to see portraits of Bhindranwale, Khalistani flags, or glorification of terrorists.
The offices of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Minister Melanie Joly did not respond to a request for comment.
Poonam Sharma
Poonam is a multi-media journalist, and Founder of Global Strat View. She managed India America Today (IAT) for seven years, and launched its print edition in 2019 with IAT's Founder and Editor, the late Tejinder Singh.
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