Repudiate India’s claim to territorial integrity, Sikh group asks G20 FMs

NEW YORK: On the heels of G20 Foreign Ministers’ Summit in New Delhi, secessionist group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) has called on the G20 nations to “repudiate India’s claim to territorial integrity” and support Sikhs’ right to secede from the Union of India through the Khalistan Referendum.

The demand has been made by the pro-Khalistan group Sikhs For Justice in an open letter to the G20 Foreign Ministers.

India has been urging the G20 nations to ban the SFJ’s pro-Khalistan activities on the grounds that the Khalistan Referendum challenges India’s territorial integrity and thus should be disallowed by other nations of the world.

Challenging India’s stance, the SFJ’s open letter states: “India’s claim to territorial integrity is without any merit and basis as India is not a country but a Union of States and like any Union, the validity of the Union of India is conditional upon the continued will of the people of the states. Since 1984, Sikhs who form the majority in the state of Punjab have been demanding the secession of Punjab from India to establish an independent Sikh homeland Khalistan.”

Article 1 of the Indian Constitution provides that: “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States”.

Given the background of the global Khalistan Referendum and its legality under international law and democratic norms, the SFJ Open Letter draws the attention of G20 nations towards the Modi regime’s criminalisation of the Khalistan Referendum and use of violence to crush the Sikh peoples’ peaceful movement for the creation of Khalistan.

Prompting the G20 nations to take notice of India’s use of violence against the Khalistan Referendum, SFJ General Counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun stated: “While SFJ believes in the ballot, not bullet, India’s Modi Regime through constant use of violence is pushing Khalistan movement back into the 1990s when the cycle of violence initiated by Indian Government engulfed the political question of Khalistan and caused thousands of human lives.”