Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 5: The worst fears of the Delhi police and the central government of the farmers’ protest being infiltrated by some separatist elements seeking an independent Khalistan may be coming true. A recent video message of the Poetic Justice Foundation (PJF) founder Mo Dhaliwal unearthed by the Delhi police show him saying that the farmers’ agitation for the repeal of the three contentious farm laws was only the beginning and it has to end only with a separate Khalistan. “PJF’s final objective isn’t just the repeal of farm laws,” he was quoted as saying.
Mo Dhaliwal, was the founder of the Vancouver-based Poetic Justice Foundation (PJF) that created the controversial ‘toolkit’ tweeted by Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg that created the storm in India and led the Delhi police to launch an inquiry into the “international conspiracy” behind the farm agitation to defame India.
After a preliminary investigation by the Delhi Police into the ‘controversial’ Power Point presentation toolkit shared by Greta Thunberg, it is being suspected that the document was created by the pro-Khalistan organization PJF and was “fed to Greta Thunberg” as a part of a larger conspiracy to create unrest in the country.
Ever since the document was shared by the young activist shared the document on her Twitter profile, it has been widely shared and read. On Thursday, Delhi Police took cognisance of the issue and even lodged an FIR against the ‘controversial’ tweet by Greta Thunberg but the FIR did not specifically mention any name.
The PJF is believed to be looking to use the farm protests in India to fuel the separatist Khalistani movement, according to a police officer probing attempts to fan the separatist movement under the garb of the farmers’ agitation. This lingering suspicion, the officer suggested, was confirmed by the recent video clip of Mo Dhaliwal where he was seen mobilising support for the agitation, as well as the separatist movement.
“If the farm bills get repealed tomorrow, that is not a victory. This battle begins with the repeal of the farm bills, it does not end there. Let no one tell you that this battle is going to end with the repeal of the farm bills. That is because they are trying to drain energy from this movement. They are trying to tell you that you are separate from Punjab, and you are separate from the Khalistan movement. You are not,” Mo Dhaliwal says in this video clip, reportedly shot during the group’s protest outside the Indian consulate on January 26. The authenticity of the video, however, could not be established so far.
The farm protests on the borders of national capital Delhi began on November 26 over three laws that aim to ease restrictions on trade in farm produce by setting up free markets. Farm unions, however, say they will erode their bargaining power, weaken a system of assured prices and make them vulnerable to exploitation by corporate giants. They have rejected an offer to suspend the operation of the laws for 18 months, insisting that the laws be repealed.
Mo Dhaliwal is the founder and director of strategy at Vancouver-based digital branding creative agency called Skyrocket. According to his social media profiles, he is also an alumnus of the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia from where he did his two-year Business Administration diploma course.
Mo Dhaliwal and his group, PJF, came into sharp focus this week after Swedish activist Greta Thunberg tweeted a document that detailed an action plan for online and offline protests linked to the ongoing farmers’ agitation that started in November end. The first document, complete with links to tweets that people could use on social media, was mostly focused on Republic Day celebrations in India on January 26 that the group intended to commemorate as a global day of protest. She deleted this document and later uploaded what a police officer described as an updated and sanitized version.
The Delhi Police on Thursday cited the first document, or toolkit, to file a criminal case alleging criminal conspiracy and sedition. It didn’t name any suspects.
In the video, Dhaliwal was seen attempting to persuade the younger members of his audience at the protest to keep an open mind to the demand for Khalistan.
“The reason why the Khalistani people are so passionate about this (farm protests) is because 40-50 years later, we are seeing the truth that they predicted in the 1970s. In the 1970s, they wanted an independent land so that we wouldn’t have to live through this movement. My request to all the young people is: Don’t close your eyes to each other, don’t close your heart to each other. Don’t close your minds to each other. If you see somebody with a sign that you don’t understand, that has this ‘bad word’, Khalistan, on it, ask questions, learn…understand… Nobody wanted to be a terrorist… They are trying to separate us from each other… We are here for the independence and sanctity of Punjab,” Dhaliwal is heard saying in the video.
Dhaliwal has even grabbed news headlines in the past. His name also popped up in Canada when he had come up with the slogan “Love and courage” for the 2017 New Democratic Party leadership campaign of Jagmeet Singh.
“I am a Khalistani. You might not know this about me. Why? Because Khalistan is an idea. Khalistan is a living, breathing movement.” These are the words of Mo Dhaliwal, who on September 17, 2020, urged people to sign a petition against Ottawa-based public policy think-tank Macdonald-Laurier Institute for publishing a report titled ‘Khalistan: A Project of Pakistan.’
Dhaliwal isn’t the only one.
Counter-terror officials, who have been talking about intelligence reports of separatist elements infiltrating the farm protests for weeks, said other pro-Khalistani individuals and groups had been active at various levels too.
The Delhi Police had earlier declared that they had already identified at least 300 handles from Pakistan that were trying to mobilise protesters at the Delhi borders with the hashtag – “Support Khalistan.”
————————
