The Congress party huge embarrassment on Wednesday with designated Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun endorsing Rahul Gandhi's observations on the Sikhs made at an event in Washington DC. Pannun heads the organisation Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) which openly talks of carving out vast parts of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and forming Khalistan. Incidentally, it never includes East Punjab, which is in Pakistan, in Khalistan's geography.
Gandhi had stated that the "fight in India is whether a Sikh will be allowed to wear turban and kada or go to a gurdwara" in India in future. The statement was slammed by the Sangh Parivar with the Sikh wing of the BJP staging demonstrations against the Congress leader in New Delhi.
But, the real embarrassment came with Pannun supporting the Leader of Opposition's remarks. Pannun said "Rahul's statement on the `existential threat to Sikhs in India' is not only bold and pioneering but is also firmly grounded in the factual history of what Sikhs have been facing under successive regimes in India since 1947 and also corroborates the SFJ's stance on the justification for Punjab Independence Referendum to establish Sikh homeland, Khalistan."
A Sikh leader of the BJP stated on condition of anonymity: ``It was the Congress regime which sponsored the systematic massacre of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 and sent army tanks into the Golden Temple. In contrast the BJP government under Modi has been doing everything possible to uphold the dignity of Sikhs. The fact that Pannun endorsed Rahul Gandhi's statement reveals the highly divisive nature of the Congress leader's agenda."
Senior RSS spokesperson Ratan Sharda said Gandhi's "repeated statements continue to degrade India." The RSS is also critical of Gandhi's reference to India as a union of states. "He is pandering to his allies like the DMK which had talked of secession of Tamil Nadu in the past. It is a dangerous game he is playing. In the past he had even stated that the concept of nation was a western construct. The fact is that India is one nation with a shared civilisation, history and culture," an RSS leader noted.
