Amritpal’s Vanishing Act

The resurgence of Khalistan has been reported in these columns earlier, titled ‘Khalistan Resurgence’. Now news channels are flooded with reports about Amritpal Singh aka Bhindranwale 2.0 having disappeared. Reams are being written about his exploits. Security has reportedly been tightened on the Indo-Nepal border. Speculation is rife whether he is hiding in Haryana, UP or Uttarakhand. Visuals from CCTV cameras showing him in various locations, switching vehicles and the multi-vehicle unsuccessful chase by Punjab Police are on TV channels, which may inspire movie producers (UK or Canada) to make a film on his daring escape!

Questions are being asked whether there is a government in Punjab and the Punjab Police is rightly on the firing line. But no one is raising the question what was the Intelligence Bureau (IB) doing since Amritpal took over ‘Waris Punjab De’ and started spreading venom in Punjab and Haryana, even calling on Punjab Police to emulate suicide-bomber Constable Dilawar Singh of Punjab Police who killed Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in 1995 by blowing himself up? Amritpal was preaching Khalistan from day one, which clearly was not to be overlooked as ‘law and order’ situation to be dealt with by the state. News now says there was regular arms training in Amritpal’s village – so why was IB sleeping? Why then did the Centre not act earlier? Can the NSA and Ministry of Home Affairs care to explain? 

Similes are being drawn with the manner in which Bhindranwale was given the loose rope, which led to terrorism in Punjab in the 1980s. But that was not the only instance of sinister politics in the country. For example, Saad Kandhalvi of Markaz Nizamuddin defied government orders of lockdown in April 2020 and organized Tablighi Jamaat in the national capital with thousands attending from abroad outside and within India. A month earlier (March 2020) Tablighi Jamaat had held a convention in Pakistan without observing COVID restrictions and yet we permitted foreign attendees in Delhi despite Tablighi Jamaat having links with Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) and its membership open to Pakistani army veterans.

Despite an arrest warrant issued for Saad Kandhalvi, he has not been arrested till date. So do we blame the Delhi Police which is under the MHA for not arresting Kandhalvi or is it dirty politics at work? Is it merely vote calculations that decide which anti-national is to be arrested at what point of time, allowed to vanish or permitted to roam free, or are specific directions given by India’s “deep state” to ruling dispensations; as described in the 1993 Vohra Committee Report.

The indications that the West wants to destabilize India have been there all along. The September 2014 meeting of NATO at Norfolk discussed not only how to undermine the economy of China but also of India. Now the Middle East (termed West Asia by the US) is gearing up to extract revenge from the US for all its invasions and black deeds; energy shortages for the West and de-dollarization are in the offing. The US, therefore, wants South Asia to become West Asia 2.0.

Pakistan apart, the Khalistan movement has been supported by the UK, Canada and US since long. This is being accelerated now and the problem will probably peak towards the 2024 general elections in India and beyond. The Khalistani attacks on the Indian High Commission in London and Indian Consulates in the US and Australia are all part of this, in addition to anti-India sloganeering and posters, defacing of walls and temples.

A US-based news channel ‘Satluj Network’ is propagating that Amritpal  Singh was working against drugs on large in Punjab and was a big headache for the government and tge drug system in :India Occupied Punjab”. The British Government has brashly said that they cannot stop the right to protests. Hence the Khalistanis continue to hold protests against the India High Commission in London albeit from a distance. Meanwhile, Hindenburg Research has recently announced that a second report on Gautam Adani would be released shortly.

Indian response has been to remove the barricades in front of the  British High Commission in New Delhi, placing the Indian Tri-Colour all along the Indian High Commission in London which a Khalistani cannot pull down, and lodging diplomatic protests; all of which project a soft state. Why should the British not be made to answer how a Khalistani climbed up the Indian High Commission in London and brought down our national flag?

When the BBC documentaries on Prime Minister Narendra Modi were released, media was full of atrocities in India during the British rule, which included: forced commercial cropping leading to famines that killed some 29 million Indians; mustard gas experiments on Indian servicemen at Rawalpindi before World War II; Indians used in World War II – 87,000 Indian servicemen died, 34,354 were wounded and 67,340 became prisoners; Jalianwala Bagh massacre killing some 1000 unarmed civilians and injuring another 1100; British troops returning from World War I brought Spanish flu to India that devastated India killing millions, and; External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has publicly stated that the British took away $45 trillion from India.

Our media always goes gaga over Indian-origin foreign politicians, be it Kamala Harris, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Rishi Sunak although their loyalty lies with their respective nations, not India and if the US-dominated West aims to destabilize India, they are very much part of the plan. Isn’t that the reason the UK and the US propped up and supported Pakistan all these years?

In the above backdrop, India needs to take far more resolute steps against the West beyond the diplomatic protests which are seen as mere whimpering by them and probably laughed at. In the case of Britain, the FTA that they dearly want after BREXIT should be blocked for a minimum of one year and further decision taken depending on the situation then. Moreover, given the above statistics of British atrocities in India and the $45 trillion wealth from India, we need to take a call on remaining a member of the so-called Commonwealth of Nations lorded over by the UK, which actually is Common Looted Wealth of Nations.

The sun set over the British Empire long back and the British need to be brought to their senses for continuing to work against Indian interests. In his book ‘Patel – A Life’ Rajmohan Gandhi has quoted Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel saying, “Give me just a week’s rule over Britain, I will create such disagreements that England, Wales and Scotland will fight one another forever.” It is time Indians go beyond exposing how and why the British established Pakistan to write and make documentaries exposing British Machiavellian skullduggery to trap Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland into forming the United Kingdom. It is time Ireland should unify Northern Ireland and Scotland and Wakes must become independent nations.  

Finally, India must make concerted efforts to dismantle its deep state no matter how difficult. Anti-nationals should not be allowed to get away because of vote calculations; this being one of the biggest disservices to the nation.

The author is an Indian Army veteran. Views expressed are personal.