File picture of Sikh separatist chief Gurpatwant Singh Pannun | Picture credit score: AP
US-based pro-Khalistan lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannun has backed Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s stance on Sikhs in India, saying that Gandhi “justified the SFJ’s international marketing campaign for the Khalistan referendum.”
Mr. Pannun is common counsel for Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), a US-based group.
In his assertion launched on Wednesday (September 11, 2024), which The Hindu Mr Pannun mentioned Mr Gandhi’s quip in regards to the “existential menace to Sikhs in India” was daring and traditionally correct.
Mr Pannun was referring to Mr Gandhi’s speech at a gathering of Indian Individuals in Herndon, a Virginia suburb of Washington DC, on Monday (9 September 2024), during which the Congress chief accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of contemplating some religions, languages and communities inferior to others and mentioned the wrestle in India is about this and never about politics.
“Addressing the gathering in Washington DC the place many pro-Khalistan Sikhs had been current, Rahul Gandhi justified the SFJ’s international marketing campaign for the Khalistan referendum when he declared: ‘The wrestle in India is whether or not a Sikh might be allowed to put on a turban and kada, and go to gurudwara,’” Mr Pannun’s assertion learn.
“Rahul’s assertion on the ‘existential menace to Sikhs in India’ just isn’t solely daring and path-breaking however can also be firmly grounded within the factual historical past of what Sikhs have been dealing with underneath successive regimes in India since 1947 and in addition corroborates SFI’s stance on the justification of the Punjab independence referendum to determine the Sikh homeland, Khalistan,” he added.
Mr Pannun, who is needed in India on terrorism prices, is a twin US-Canadian citizen. In November final 12 months, US federal prosecutors charged Indian nationwide Nikhil Gupta with collaborating with an Indian authorities worker within the foiled plot to kill Mr Pannun in New York.
Following the allegations, India appointed a high-level inquiry committee to look at the enter offered by america on the plot.
Revealed – September 11, 2024 03:17 pm IST