41model minority · reportageFEBRUARY 2018does not identify with the term Kha-
listani, he said, “I am in favour of Sikh
statehood and sovereignty.”
Later in our conversation, Gur-
ratan circled back to the NSYF to add
that it was important to create spaces
for people impacted by oppression to
express their views freely. “When we
talk about issues of Punjab and we talk
about people and their experiences in
regards to anything around human-
rights abuses in Punjab, you deal with
people who have a lot of hurt,” he said.
“My brother has never shied away from
going to a place where people are hurt
and where people are feeling hurt, and
though he may disagree with the posi-
tions around violence—which has been
very clear—I think that around the
process of healing and reconciliation
we need to be able to have a dialogue
with all individuals.”
Shamsher said that Jagmeet reached
out to the NSYF as part of an effort to
network with diaspora Sikhs outside
Canada. The co-founder’s own opin-
ions on Jagmeet were decidedly mixed.
On the one hand, Shamsher criticised
Jagmeet for embracing a “Western” po-
litical outlook and being “selective” in
his engagement with Sikh politics. “I’ve
met Jagmeet multiple times, he doesn’t
know jack about Sikhi,” he said. On
the other hand, Shamsher praised the
NDP leader for engaging with his group
and for his refusal to denounce Parmar
during the Milewski interview. “I have
immense respect for Jagmeet Singh,”
he wrote in a Facebook post, “because
not only did he take a position, he took
a Sikh political one, he did not throw
Shaheed Bhai Talwinder Singh ‘under
the bus.’”
Jagmeet’s routine criticisms of the
Indian government and his statements
on self-determination have attracted
the attention of major Indian news
outlets. These have put out a fair share
of flattering articles about the NDP
leader’s personal celebrity, but they
have also highlighted the controver-
sies surrounding him. “Jagmeet Singh
criticised for glorifying Khalsa chief
accused of 1985 AI bombing,” read a
headline in the Hindustan Times fol-
lowing the Milewski interview. “Sikh
hijacker among others to congratulate
Jagmeet Singh on being elected leader
of Canada’s NDP,” the Times of India
titled a story on Jagmeet’s elevation
to the party’s leadership. An opinion
piece on the website Newslaundry
asked, “Why doesn’t India like Jag-
meet Singh?”
Distaste for Jagmeet runs especially
high among politicians in Punjab. The
state’s chief minister, the 75-year-old
Amarinder Singh, has been outspo-
ken in his aversion. Amarinder is
no stranger to criticising Canadian
Sikhs—he made international headlines
by calling Canada’s current defence
minister, Harjit Singh Sajjan, a “Kha-listani sympathiser.” Raveen Thukral,
Amarinder’s media advisor, told me in
text messages that Jagmeet “is echoing
the sentiments of those out to destroy
the state’s peace and tranquillity.
Naturally, this is a matter of concern, as
his statements smack of an anti-India
sentiment, indicating a strong radical
mind-set.”
This is an especially forceful example
of the general distrust that Punjab’s
old-guard political elite has of second-
generation Canadian Sikhs, whom
they view as dangerous at worst and
misinformed at best. Tript Rajinderindian express archive