Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has a new problem. Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena yesterday (Monday) recommended a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The NIA has referred him for investigation, alleging that he received political funding from Sikh Justice (SFJ), a New York-based pro-Khalistan outfit banned in India.
Deputy Governor House sources told The Indian Express that the recommendation was based on a complaint by Ashu Mongia of the World Hindu Federation, a diaspora-based Hindu advocacy organisation. Mongia alleged that Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party received $16 million from SFJ.
What is Justice for Sikhs (SFJ) organization?
SFJ was founded in 2007 by Gurpadwant Singh Bannun, according to its website, SFJ seeks to achieve “self-determination for the Sikh people in a historic homeland in Indian-controlled Punjab” and “establish a sovereign state popularly known as Khalistan”.
“It was created by openly recognizing that the Khalistan movement’s Achilles heel was the deliberate use of violence,” said Terry Milewski, Canadian journalist and author of Blood for Blood: Fifty Years of the Global Khalistan Project (2021). Indian Express. Bannoon’s motto is “votes not bullets,” Milewski said.
So far, SFJ’s most notable activity was the so-called ‘Referendum 2020’ for the secession of Punjab – specifically an Indian state and not a Pakistani province – among the Sikh diaspora in some cities.
“The rules and the identity requirements are ridiculous,” Milewski told The Indian Express. “I have a friend in London who went online to register to vote, put Angelina Jolie as her name and was successfully registered to vote. Pannoon and his cohorts credited random, unverifiable numbers for the success of the polls,” he said.
Banun’s double talk, SFJ
Despite being said to have “turned aside” from the violent Khalistan movement in the past, the SFJ and Pannun have not been shy about glorifying terrorists and mass murderers.
For example, the campaign headquarters for ‘Referendum’ in Canada commemorates ‘Shaheed’ (martyr) Talwinder Singh Parmar, mastermind of the 1985 Air India bombings that killed 329 innocent people, the deadliest massacre in Canadian history. SFJ has repeatedly hailed Indira Gandhi’s assassins, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh. In a video that went viral in 2020, Pannun promised to gift new iPhones to anyone who flew the Khalistan flag in memory of ‘Shaheed’ Beant Singh.
“Terrorists have been an absolutely essential part of the SFJ’s image … the SFJ is completely at odds with themselves,” Milewski said. And SFJ doesn’t stop at simply glorifying terrorists. Pannoon has often made veiled threats to Hindus and other non-Sikh members of the Indian diaspora.
Banned in India
India designates Pannoon as a terrorist and has banned the SFJ under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The Home Ministry’s 2019 notification issuing the ban says: “In the guise of a so-called referendum for Sikhs, the SFJ actually supports it. Separatism and militant ideology in Punjab is actively supported by hostile forces in other countries while operating from safe havens on foreign soil. Currently, nearly 12 cases have been registered against Bannoon and SFJ in India.
