An Analysis of July Khalistan Referendum 2024
July Khalistan Referendum 2024 (A Bird’s Eye View)
Promoted by common accounts on Social media (Dissenting Voices for India)
Pak Media’s coverage
Referendum propagandized by numerous Pak handles as well as Pak users on X
Fake news and Misinformation amid 2024 referendums
Additional Data Underscoring the Trend of Referendum July 2024
Conclusion
Latest Khalistan Referendum 2024 (A bird’s eye view)
The Khalistan Referendum has entered its fourth year. The recent one took place on July 28, organized by the Sikhs for Justice in the Calgary Municipal Plaza in the province of Alberta, Canada. The event witnessed long queues outside the centre before voting began.
Pannu, leader of the SFJ, addressed the participants through a video link. The referendum vocalized various concepts, from the demand for a separate homeland, to the issue of Air India bombing, Talwinder Singh Parmar, and the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, SFJ’s principal organizer for the province of British Columbia.
The referendum was attended by prominent figures, such as Avatar Singh Pannu and M Dane Waters, chairman of the Punjab Referendum Commission. The referendum resonated with the slogan of ‘Liberate Punjab – kill India’ slogan.
Earlier, two other referendums had taken place in different places in California, US.
Ripping apart the Indian flag using daggers, burning effigies of Narendra Modi and Indira Gandhi, and painting black colour on their effigies, are common activities performed by these militants in their rallies ahead of the referendum. Indeed, they are deeply involved in the digital landscape also.
They miss no chance of propagating the themes of their referendums. They employ numerous hashtags, while posting videos and images. These are the most common and recurrent activities done by them.
Undoubtedly, this time also, they left no stone unturned to promote and disseminate the idea of their movement. In this exclusive report by DFRAC, we have provided a brief examination of the July, 2024 Khalistan Referendum, encompassing its promotion on social media platform X.
Promoted by common accounts on social media (Dissenting Voices for India)
X handle of Jagjeet Singh
In our probe, we came across Jagjeet Singh’s X handle. As per X’s bio, he is a US-based journalist working in Politics Punjab TV, and is a Sikh activist. We discovered that the majority of the tweets are related to the propagation of the Khalistan referendum, or, implicitly, attacking India.
Below is a collage that features some excerpts of tweets and posts from his handle.
The collage reflects the technique of dissemination to spread the propaganda. This has been done in the form of uploading videos, and re-posting content from numerous accounts on X, which are, somehow, deeply associated with the Khalistan movement.
X handle of Gurpreet Sahota
Another X handle that has been actively participating in this dissemination is journalist Gurpreet Sahota’s handle. On examining the X handle, we found new techniques employed by him for promoting this movement. There is sharp emphasis on the atrocities committed against Sikhs in the past, using it as a weapon to inflame the spirit of their movement. His tweets and posts have been shared in the span of January to July, when these referendums happened, so as to invite the voters by rousing their emotions.
Not only this, this handle promotes Punjab as a different state, and India as a subcontinent. For them, Tamil Nadu is a country, not a federal state of India.
X handle of Sarbraj Singh Kahlon
A brief probe of Kahlon’s handle provides the crystallization of significant events that happened ahead of the referendum in Calgary.
Certainly, the tweets and posts on his X handle from January, 2024 to July 2024, revolved around the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and India. He has also been found promoting the Sacramento Referendum in California, that took place on January 28, 2024.
X handle of Jagmeet Singh from NDP
The X handle of Jagmeet Singh (leader of NDP) has been found echoing the assassination of Nijjar and reiterating the past of 1984
X handle of Jagdeep Singh
Investigation of Jagdeep Singh’s handle on X depicts the anti-India stance sustained by the organization, Sikhs for Justice. We have provided some excerpts from his tweets done during the period of the Khalistan referendums in 2024.
In one of the tweets, he has shared a video of Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, which argues that Donald Trump’s shooter has the mindset of Modi, while endorsing the opinion of Sikhs for Justice, which asserts that political differences should be settled by vote, not violence.
Besides, he condemns India’s move of extending the ban on Sikhs for Justice in the remaining tweets.
In another tweet, Jagdeep Singh wrote: “On Dussehra, several events across India depict the brutal killing of Ravana by Ram. Yet, this is not considered ‘extremism’. However, if Sikhs depict the political assassination of Indira Gandhi, it is labeled as ‘terrorism’.” He has juxtaposed the reason for celebrating Dussehra with the Sikhs’ depiction of the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
A tweet shared by him shows a brief examination of India’s democracy from 1937, focusing on the circumstances prevailing in Punjab. Another tweet illustrates how the supporters of this movement express their outrage against India and Modi, along with their perpetual enthusiasm in a Sikh Nagar Kirtan.
Pak Media Coverage
Further research has shed light on how Pakistan is escalating this movement. In other words, it is playing a significant role in using social media platforms as a weapon to showcase its support for Khalistan, and the latest referendum that took place in Calgary, Canada.
The 2024 referendums have been extensively amplified by Pakistani media organizations on X, fueling the Khalistan movement, with inflammatory content against India.
Murtaza Ali Shah, reporter in Pakistani media outfit, Geo News, interviewed Avtar Singh Pannu on the day of the Khalistan Referendum. He also interviewed the co-founder of Sikhs for Justice, Dr Bakhshish Singh Sandhu, before the day of the referendum..
Posts by various Pak Handles that usually post misinformation against India
The Pak handles, which share fake content and misinformation against India on X, have amplified this movement. Notably, the tweets and videos has been shared in the span of January (when the first 2024 referendum took place) to July (when the third referendum happened in Calgary, Canada).
Psywar Bureau, a Pak-based handle, deliberately shares misinformation on India. The DFRAC team has performed multiple fact-checks based on this particular handle.
In our investigation, we have discovered that the account has shared a long thread on Khalistan against India. In addition to this, a video has been posted on June 7, 2024, showing Khalistani supporters inserting daggers inside the Indian tricolour.
Another account that came under the radar of our investigation is, ‘Defence Pakistan’. It holds more than 2,000 followers on X, and is operated from Pakistan. This account has been seen posting different kind of content on Khalistan.
It has re-posted a video of a recent referendum and shared an image of a peculiar flag which is designed after the flag of Khalistan and Pakistan. It denotes the solidarity of Pakistan with Khalistan.
Not only this, the account has posted the statement of a Khalistani leader, Jaswant Singh, which stresses the demand of Khalistan and their feelings towards India.
DFRAC did subsequent research on the tweets run by two prominent accounts operating from Pakistan, named ‘OSINT Defence Insight’ and ’Ironclad’. The DFRAC team has conducted numerous fact-checks on these tweets and updates. This time, the tweet supporting the Khalistan movement has been found on their timeline on X.
‘Hello Pakistan’ is yet another account on X that we have come across during our investigation. It shows its solidarity for Khalistan. Updates of the supporters of Khalistan on the Indian High Commission in UK, emphasize the theme of the recent referendum, which is voting dedicated to deceased Canadian Sikhs.
Referendum propagandized by Pak users on X
A brief investigation in this particular context discloses that the videos of the recent referendum has been cross-posted by numerous Pak-based handles along with captions in Urdu. Several Pak-based handles follow a copy-paste pattern on X. Here is a collage given below, highlighting the pattern, promoting the Calgary Referendum, 2024.
Pakistan’s digital support to this movement has been meticulously examined in this report.
Fake news and misinformation amid the Referendums of 2024
Misinformation 1
Journalist Jagmeet Singh has been found sharing fake news from a Pak-based handle named ‘Ironclad’. He re-posted the tweet by ‘Ironclad’ on the Tejas aircraft of Indian Air Force. The tweet read: “It is now confirmed that a Tejas aircraft of Indian Air Force has crashed in Surat, Gujarat.”
The DFRAC team fact-checked this news. In reality, the Tejas fighter jet had made an emergency landing at Surat Airport due to low fuel.
Analysis: Misleading
Misinformation 2
He shared another information from the Pak-based handle citing that India has withdrawn from the Chabahar Port deal in Iran to avoid heavy US sanctions. DFRAC found that no such news has been published by any media outfit.
Analysis: Fake
Misinformation 3
Taking to X, he posted another news on May 20, 2024, alleging: “One of India’s top diplomat, named Sanjeev Mandia, from the Indian embassy in Tehran, tried to escape from Iran. He was arrested at the departure gate of Tehran International Airport by Iranian intelligence, and has been moved to a secure location.”
Upon investigating this news, no evidence or media reports have been found supporting the claim. Moreover, we discovered that the image shared with the claim was from 2022 when Iraqi forces had arrested ISIS leaders in Baghdad.
Analysis: Misleading
Misinformation 4
Jagjeet Singh, Gurpreet Sahota and Jagdeep Singh shared a news item published by The Wire (January 31, 2024). According to the report, the US government has held back delivery of 31 MQ-9A Sea Guardian and Sky Guardian drones to India until New Delhi carries out a “meaningful investigation” into the conspiracy to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
On investigation, the DFRAC team found a press release issued by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency mentioning the approval of a possible foreign military sale to the government of India of MQ-9B Remotely Piloted Aircraft, and related equipment, for an estimated cost of $3.99 billion. We also found a report by Hindustan Times (February 1, 2024) supporting the information cited in a press release.
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Analysis: Fake
Misinformation 5
On June, 2024, a Pak-based handle named ’Defence Pakistan’ shared a video on X and claimed: “#Indian #RAW intelligence officer #Vikash Santhia has been eliminated in a targeted attack in #Delhi.” He was reportedly involved in the killing of a Khalistani leader in #Canada.”
In the probe, DFRAC found that the video was from May, 2024 and related to a car fire incident in Uttam Nagar, Delhi, in which a moving Brezza car suddenly caught fire, while no casualties were reported.
Analysis: Misleading
Additional Data underscoring the trend of Referendum July 2024
Here, we have presented additional data regarding the latest referendum, 2024 in the current digital landscape. The data deals with information such as Google trends on specific keyword, user locations, Tweets Timeline, and accounts that tweeted the most.
Google Trend
The Google trend showcases that the keyword, Khalistan Referendum, started on 20 July, and was at its peak on 28 July, which indicates that ‘Khalistan Referendum’ was most searched for on 28 July.
User Location
While tracking the locations of the search, we found that majority of them were from Canada. Interestingly, some users from Pakistan were also searching for Khalistan Referendum.
Tweets Timeline
While analyzing the timeline of the tweets in X for the month of July, it can be observed from the graph below that more than 1,000 unique tweets were done on the ‘Khalistan Referendum’. Notably, the graph shows two peaks, one on 7 July, with more than 60 unique tweets, and the other on 30 July, with 57 tweets.
Accounts Tweeted
The examination of the handles which tweeted the most on ‘Khalistan Referendum’ are ‘@1SikhNarrative’ (tweeted the most with 21 tweets), followed by ‘Jaisingh360Jai’ with 20 tweets, and ‘@learner855’ with 18 tweets. The handle with the username of ‘@KhandaTalks’ also tweeted on the referendum. Surprisingly, the account has been suspended by X, since it violates its rules.
Conclusion
This report descriptively illustrates the promotion and dissemination of this movement from January to July, 2024 in the digital landscape. The movement has transcended beyond the tangible voices of the physical world and has been significantly influencing social media platforms. Further, it is upheld by various external forces.
Certainly, this development is not a good sign for India on the digital landscape,as well as at the global level.
