SIKH VIRSA ARTICLE ( MAY 2019)

The World Sikh Organization of Canada
has written to Public Safety Minister Ralph
Goodale over concerns regarding the interference
of Indian interests in Canada and
within the Sikh community.
Last week, Germany laid charges against
individuals for spying on the Sikh and
Kashmiri communities and providing information
to India’s foreign intelligence
agency, Research and Analysis Wing
(RAW). This is the third-time German authorities
have charged individuals for spying
on behalf of India in the recent past.
Charges had earlier been laid against a Ranjit
Singh in March 2014 and one “T.S.P.” in
September 2016. It also came to light that
the same Ranjit Singh who was
charged in 2014 for spying
was named on April 1, 2019
as a facilitator and handler
of a cell of “Babbar
Khalsa” militants who
were arrested in Mohali,
Punjab. Those arrested
are all below the age of
30 and were reportedly
radicalized by Ranjit. It
was alleged by the Punjab
Police that “Ranjit Singh is
the mastermind who was providing
help to the accused and
was motivating them to eliminate
the targets.”
The Punjab Police later said that they
did not know Ranjit Singh had been convicted
of espionage in Germany.
The links between a known Indian intelligence
asset and the radicalization and
arrest of a cell of “Babbar Khalsa” militants
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is worrying and the implications go farther
than just India or Germany.
In the letter to Minister Goodale sent
today, WSO expressed concerns about Indian
interference and espionage within the
Sikh community in Canada.
In 1986-87 several Indian diplomats were
asked by Canadian authorities to leave
Canada because of their espionage activities
in the Sikh community. One of these
diplomats was Maloy Krishna Dhar, a former
Joint Director and a 29-year veteran of the
Indian Intelligence Bureau was in Ottawa on
a diplomatic posting from 1983-87. Dhar wrote
in his memoir “Open Secrets” that his mission
was to “penetrate select Gurdwaras”,
create assets in the Sikh community
& also to generate
‘a few friends amongst the
Canadian Members of
Parliament’
Dhar also was involved
in targeting
both mainstream and
Punjabi media with stories
to “tell the Indian
side” and to “regularly
meet Canadian Foreign
Office mandarins and
RCMP point men to brief them
about developments back in India
and to share whatever “open”
information the Indian mission could cull
from the community through ‘open’ means”
Dhar wrote, “I do not intend to disclose
the details of the intelligence operations that
were carried out between Mani, Shashi and
me in deference to the niceties of diplomatic
protocol. But we did a lot and reached appreciable
penetration in the key Sikh inhabited
cities in Canada.”
While the activities of Indian intelligence
have not drawn attention in the same way
in recent years, pressure from Indian interests
continues to be felt by many members
of the Canadian Sikh community. Many
Sikhs, including current and former elected
officials, have been denied visas to visit
India due to their having spoken out about
human rights abuses in India.
In the summer of 2017, the Consulate
General of India in Toronto attempted to
coerce Carabram, a local cultural festival, to
cancel a Punjab pavilion. The Punjab Pavilion
was envisioned as a celebration of the
culture of Punjab which is today divided by
Pakistan and India. Despite this, attempts
were made to link the Punjab Pavilion with
“Sikh extremism” and Indian national politics.
Indian interference in Canadian affairs
was also on display when the Consulate
Generation of India (Toronto) attended a
local Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh Canada
(HSS) event in the Greater Toronto Area.
The HSS is the international arm of the farright
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The RSS is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist
(Hindutva), & paramilitary organization
which has been widely condemned
as an extremist organization and reported
on by the likes of Amnesty International, &
Human Rights Watch.
The Indian Government’s control and
manipulation of the media to serve its ideological
purposes is also well known. Reporters
Without Borders has said in its 2018
World Press Freedom Index that India is now
138th-ranked in the world out of 180 countries
measured, down two positions since
2017 and lower than countries like Zimbabwe,
Afghanistan and Myanmar.
According to a recent report in the Diplomat,
“the BJP Government has transformed
previously independent media outlets into
state mouthpieces for the sake of minimizing
criticism and disseminating their own
narrative”.
In Canada, there have been long-held
suspicions in the Sikh community that Indian
interests manipulate, interfere and pressure
media here. During the Air India Inquiry,
Don McLean, a member of the
Vancouver Police Department, spoke about
his concerns regarding the involvement of
the Indian government and its agents in
Canada during the 80s. Mr. McLean noted
his concern that the Indian Consul General
Sikh Virsa, Calgary 59. May, 2019