Disinfo Lab, which investigates information warfare and psychological operations, said on Thursday that a set of "coordinated actions" by Western powers in the month of June has sent out a message of solidarity to pro-Khalistan supporters around the world. In this light, a foreign intelligence ex-agent asserted that the radicals always were used by the West to press India.
Pro-Khalistan separatists were one of the most effective 'tools' of the collective West to exert pressure on India, Colonel RSN Singh, the state's spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) former operative and an author, told Sputnik India.
"If we trace the history of the Khalistan movement, there is ample evidence to suggest that it surged only during the 1970s after Pakistan and it’s then ally US were humiliated at the hands of India, backed by Moscow, during the Bangladesh Liberation War," Singh explained.
Pro-Khalistan 'Activists' Most Effective Tool of West to Contain India: Ex-Spy
India's military intelligence ex-officer said that the separatists were one of the many "levers" of western strategy to affect the country.
"I believe that the West, particularly the US, has also backed anti-India Islamic terrorists and ultra-left wing Naxals, as part of a strategy to influence India," the ex-spy remarked.
His comments followed the report by Disinfo Lab, an entity which unveils fake news and propaganda, which pointed out towards five actions by western institutions, which include think tanks, media, politicians, Parliament and government, in the month of June. The report said on X that these western steps seemed to have been focussed on inculcating the biased narrative about "transnational repression" of the Sikh radicals by India.
In the meantime, Singh reckoned that there was a "clear connection" between the resurgence of pro-Khalistan activism in the West in recent years and the growing global prominence of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.
"To boil it down, the US isn’t happy with the independent foreign policy posture adopted by Prime Minister Modi during the Ukraine Conflict. We have spurned their pressure to cut down ties with Russia and have continued to purchase Russian oil in spite of US pressure," the R&AW ex-agent said.
Meanwhile, on 13 June, United Kingdom (UK)-based think tank Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) accused pro-India Sikh handles involved in countering pro-Khalistan propaganda of spreading "disinformation". Disinfo Lab described CIR as a 'Deep State' project, the platform noted.
Then, on 14 June, police in Czech Republic recorded the extradition of 52-year-old Nikhil Gupta at the airport, while he was being taken to the US to face trial in "murder-for-hire" charges over his alleged involvement in a foiled assassination plot against US/Canadian citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who happens to be a designated terrorist in India.
The video of Gupta being escorted by Czech and New York Police Department (NYPD) personnel was released on 17 June. Facing court this week, Gupta pleaded "not guilty" to the charges against him.
West Disinformation Against India
In the meantime, state-backed Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) released a documentary accusing Indian authorities of harassing pro-Khalistan radicals, or those involved in advocating secession of the Indian state of Punjab. It directly accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to "infiltrate" Australian politics through a volunteer-organisation Overseas Friends of the BJP (OFBJP).
The ABC documentary titled, 'Infiltrating Australia-India's Secret War', has been widely criticised by the Australian-Indian community for giving a platform to the grouping and spreading "disinformation" against the diaspora.
Disinfo Lab highlighted that on the same day, four US Senators, led by Jeff Merkley, a co-author of the Transnational Repression Policy Act, wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for a "strong diplomatic response" against India for "increasingly irresponsible efforts to silence critics of its government among its diaspora around the world".
Finally, on 19 June, the Canadian Parliament, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, commemorated the death anniversary of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a pro-Khalistan movement member shot dead last year. Trudeau has blamed "agents" of the Indian government of being behind the killing, though Ottawa is yet to offer any proof on India's role.
Nijjar, who headed banned terrorist group Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), has been designated as a terrorist in India since July 2020.