By Asia Samachar | Australia |
The Khalistan Referendum, an unofficial voting exercise to allow Sikhs to express their support for a separate nation-state in India, took place peacefully on Sunday (Jan 29) in Melbourne, with a minor clash towards the end of the whole-day polling.
Tensions flared between Khalistani supporters and a group of people carrying Indian flags in central Melbourne on Sunday, with a fracas breaking out around 4:30 pm, half an hour before voting closed in the Melbourne chapter of the non-binding referendum which organisers say was a largely peaceful event with a big turnout, reports SBS Punjabi.
Confronting footage shows Khalistani supporters clashing with people waving the Indian tricolour outside Federation Square on 29 January, using flag poles as weapons. Videos shared on social media also show dozens of supporters from both camps fleeing the scene in panic as the police try to disperse the crowd, the report added.
Gurbax Singh Bains, a representative of the Supreme Sikh Council of Australia, who participated in the polling exercise, told the Australian broadcasting station that the fracas broke out after a group of pro-India supporters waving national flags arrived at the polling site.
“I understand that a few members of the pro-India camp protesting near the Botanical Gardens broke away from their group and arrived at the voting site furling the national flags. And as it happens during big youth gatherings, they [Khalistan supporters] took this as a challenge and clashed with the other side,” Mr Bains said.
In a statement to SBS, the Consul General of India in Melbourne, Dr Sushil Kumar, condemned pro-Khalistan activities in Australia, which he said “threaten” the integrity and security of India.
Ahead of the Melbourne event, UK-based Sikh Press Association (SPA) had released the following statement: “After already taking place in Canada, the UK and Italy, the first Khalistan Referendum event in Australia is currently underway in Melbourne. The non-binding democratic Sikhs For Justice [SFJ] campaign to gauge Punjabi diaspora support for a free Sikh homeland in India has seen an estimated 17,000 take part already, with many more expected through the day.
“The campaign, conducted peacefully and legally around the world, was recently endorsed by indigenous groups of Australia, in a show of support for Sikh sovereignty. However, Indian state anti-Sikh propaganda continues to negatively influence coverage of the campaign.”
The referendum is underpinned by the US-based organisation and advocacy group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ). In 2018, it announced the ‘Khalistan referendum’ to establish a consensus among Sikhs to establish a separate homeland within India, which will be known as Khalistan.
The SFJ has proposed that this be achieved by carving out the north Indian state of Punjab, parts of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, and several districts of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The voting in the referendum, which began in October 2021, has so far been held in the UK, Switzerland, Italy and Canada.
Whilst the partition of 1947 led to the creation of Hindu-dominated India and Muslim-dominated Pakistan, the Sikhs of Punjab are too often forgotten in this story, argued SFJ general counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
“Punjab existed as a sovereign state until it was taken over by the British Raj in 1849. Sovereignty of the region existed long before India was given independence when Sikh majority areas were forced under Indian control without seeking the consent of the people. We believe it is now time to right historic wrongs and let Punjab determine how it wants to be governed. The right to self-determination is ingrained in international law, including under Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations,” he wrote when the referendum kicked-started in London in 2020.
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