GB News face Sikh backlash for Nigel Farage “defaming an entire Sikh community”
UPDATE: Wasiq Wasiq, the Henry Jackson Society pseudo-expert on Khalistan, made a public apology for his false allegations made in the report. See it here- The Sikh Press Association (@sikhpa) • Instagram photos and videos
A news report on right-wing UK media channel GB News has faced mass backlash for a ludicrous claim that violence at a kabaddi tournament was linked to the Khalistan (free Sikh homeland movement).
The segment, featured on far-right politician Nigel Farage’s regular weekday 7pm show, centred on an incident at the Kabaddi Federation UK’s tournament in Derby (Midlands, UK) on Sunday 20th August. A group of masked weapon wielding men stormed the site of the tournament in Alvaston to target a specific few others.
See a statement from The Sikh Federation UK on the anti-Sikh report below.
On the report released on 22nd August, after saying the “blame” of the violence lay with “Khalistanis”, Farage, who has long faced strong criticism for racist statements and lying to the British public about Brexit, brought on former music teacher turned pro-India propagandist Wasiq Wasiq for pseudo-expertise on the topic of Khalistan.
Wasiq is an employee of the notorious pro-India UK based Henry Jackson Society, an organisation regularly accused of being funded by Indian nationalist groups due to its open promotion of Narendra Modi’s much criticised fascist regime. The Henry Jackson Society were also investigated for accepting funding to push anti-China propaganda, whilst their attempts to distance last year’s Leicester riots from Hindu extremism have also raised concerns about the group’s influences from India.
In a clear indication of the lack of substance to the allegations made by Farage and Wasiq, there was no attempt to actually explain how the incident was linked to Khalistan. Instead, Wasiq simply said “what is happening in Punjab seems to have spilled over…we have seen Khalistani flags there” as a faux-explanation of how the random violence at a sports event was anything to do with a Sikh political movement, currently mostly noted for its democratic referendum campaign.
A former colleague of Wasiq at West London based Cranford Community College who wished to remain anonymous, said of the Henry Jackson Associate Fellow:
“Wasiq is definitely no expert on anything to do with the Sikh community. Despite working in an area teeming with Sikh organisations, many of them pro-Khalistan, Wasiq was never engaged with them nor even seemingly aware of their existence. It is definitely baffling to see him now paraded as some kind of expert on Sikh politics. He was a good music teacher though.”
Wasiq and Farage drew mass ire from Sikhs on Twitter after the report came out, with even his GB News colleagues Narinder Kaur and Bushra Shaikh lambasting him for “Causing more hatred” and “defaming an entire Sikh community”.
Rather than attempt to explain his allegations, Wasiq simply deleted his Twitter account.
Along with the Khalistan accusations, Farage also managed to tie the incident into his ongoing anti-immigrant sensationalism, saying “much larger numbers of Sikhs are crossing the English channel in those dingys…I havent got a clue if some of those that are coming are associated with the Khalistani movement…surely we need to know”. Wasiq then relayed stats suggesting asylum seekers could be a danger to the British public, before provocatively stating “we will have to be dealing with Khalistani extremists”.
During the segment Farage claimed “politics of the subcontinent are coming to the UK”, yet a violent Indian nationalist mob attacking Sikhs last week was ignored by Farage.
The violence at the Kabaddi tournament saw three men taken to hospital with serious injuries and four men were arrested by armed police. None of those involved have any links to any Khalistan groups, or Sikh organisations. No initial reports from any media or the police suggested it was linked to the Khalistan movement. According to locals, the conflict was part of an ongoing tit-for-tat feud between groups, which has seen attacks carried out across the Derbyshire area.
A video released by the England Kabaddi Federation through community group Shere Panjab UK saw the claims from GB News completely dismissed. Immediately after the incident, various Sikh orgs came out to condemn it too, criticising the normalisation of alcohol consumption at such events which can lead to violence. Kabaddi competition, a traditional sport amongst the Punjabi Sikh community, is often supported by Sikh organisations and support for Khalistan or other panthic (Sikh path/community centred) movements is common at such events.
Speaking on the report, Sikh Press Association Senior Press Officer Jasveer Singh said:
“The GB News piece may be the worst example of anti-Sikh reporting from a UK news org I have seen in nearly nine years of covering Sikhs in UK media.
“There is no doubt in my mind, this kind of baseless anti-Sikh journalism has been influenced either directly or indirectly by the Indian State. The act of framing any criminality involving a Sikh as some kind of example of “Khalistani terrorism” is pure Indian nationalist propaganda designed to detract from the movement, which also works to expose India’s infinite human rights abuses.
“We sincerely hope media regulator Ofcom will act now they have been contacted, as GB News show no intention of admitting their allegations about Khalistan are baseless. To the contrary, Farage seems intent to tie in Sikhs into his longtime anti-asylum seeker rhetoric, and the Khalistan allegations are an easy way to do so. The involvement of a Henry Jackson Society employee in the report only further underlines the obvious influence from Indian nationalist rhetoric within this news piece.
“The UK public should be very concerned about this obvious Indian State influence corrupting the standards of media in this country. We have seen The Times recently been used for obvious Indian nationalist anti-Sikh propaganda, whilst the BBC this year reached new levels of erasing Sikh identity which is associated to Khalistan too. Indian media is ranked 161st of 180 countries for press freedom and the UK is heading in that direction with such reporting.”
Sikh groups have now raised the incident with Ofcom whilst activists remain encouraging complaints to be registered against the report. Sikh PA will provide updates on a pursuit for GB News to rescind their empty anti-Sikh claims as they come in.
See more Sikh reaction against the report below.
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