The Khalistan Bogey: An “Embarrassing Neurosis”
The farmers from Punjab, protesting against the three farm laws, are facing a similar quagmire with the Khalistan bogey. This is by no means a discussion on the merits or de-merits of the three farm laws, but something more basic — exploring a baseless narrative and contextualising it for what it actually is. The Khalistan drivel is the figment of the imagination of a few with no meaningful base in Punjab — except an irrelevant fringe which is romanticised overseas and exploited by India’s enemies.
Khalistan is an idea whose time will never come, definitely not today, nor tomorrow nor ever. Pakistan’s dream of a de-hyphenated Indian-Sikh identity never got the kind of traction it hoped for even in the darkest of days, because Punjab chose India and put to bed a dark and bloody chapter in its history. To think that a stray poster or key chain of a dead terrorist implies a deeper rooted problem or sentiment in Punjab, that too…