A multi-national effort to mount a campaign for ‘Sikh Referendum 2020’ has made much noise, especially on social media, even as it has found little traction on the ground. The campaign has, in fact, faced rough weather in Punjab. Even organisations like the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) and the Dal Khalsa, which could be expected to be sympathetic to the cause, recently asked the organisers a series of penetrating questions about the goals and the viability of the campaign. However, recent claims about the emerging hand of the Pakistani intelligence agency in exploiting the situation and the linking of the Kashmir issue with the ‘referendum’ are reasons enough to take a hard look at these activities.

Punjab suffered mightily in the decades lost to militancy; and there is understandable wariness among the people towards embracing causes that may exacerbate the situation. Indeed, beyond posters occasionally appearing and certain confessions to the police from criminals arrested for various crimes, there is not much material evidence of the campaign’s hold. However, in the post-truth cyber world of today, there is a lot that takes place online, and this is what most of the activities of the campaigners have concentrated on. A gathering in London next week would give a platform to the organisers, but it is rightly feared that by then there will be a strain on the social fabric of the state and its people.

Even as the police and the intelligence agencies keep an eye on troublemakers, they should ensure that foreign agents, state or non-state, do not gain any ground in Punjab. As for those who are funding and guiding what amounts, at the most, to an opinion poll by another name, they would be well advised to steer clear of interference in the internal affairs of India. Punjabis do not seek independence from anything other than the meddling hands of interfering foreigners who seek to impose their ideas and perceptions on a land that they grew up in but are no longer connected to.

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Courtesy: The Tribune: Aug, 07 2018