Sikh groups hit back after graffiti allegations follow Khalistan Referendum to California

Graffiti sprayed on Mandirs (Hindu temples) in the last few weeks in California (USA) has reignited discussion of a “false flag” campaign following the Khalistan (free Sikh homeland) Referendum across continents.

The Hindu American Foundation made claims of a “rising threat from Khalistan” in the USA, whilst no evidence of such an issue exists. Suggestions Khalistan groups are behind recent Mandir vandalism add to a pattern which has led to many prominent Sikh voices now openly stating the crimes are a “false flag”.

The Vijay’s Sherawali Temple in Hayward on 5th January and the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Newark on 22nd December were daubed with so-called “pro-Khalistan graffiti”, according to Indian media, just weeks before a 28th January Khalistan Referendum vote event takes place in San Francisco. The same issue of alleged pro-Khalistan graffiti on Mandirs has followed the referendum campaign from Toronto to Melbourne to California since 2022, without anyone ever caught for the crime and only one incident ever caught on CCTV.

Whilst Indian media and groups like the Hindu American Foundation directed the blame of the crimes towards Sikhs without evidence, Sikh groups and activists have pointed out several reasons there is a very plausible belief that Hindu extremists are behind the graffiti in an attempt to portray the Khalistan movement as anti-Hindu, justifying State propagated Hindu nationalist hate for it.

These reasons include:

• Misspelled Sikh terms/words, including spelling “Khalistan” incorrectly, and using Hindi as opposed to Punjabi style phonetic spelling
• Terms such as BBC being used in graffiti, which have no relevance to any Sikh activism or positions
• The near complete lack of CCTV footage clips provided by Mandirs showing the crime taking place
• A car with “Haryana” emblazoned on it sought by police regarding one incident. Haryana is a state known to have many vehemently anti-Khalistan pro-Indian nationalism supporters
• A declassified document from Australian police suggesting a “Hindu hand” is behind the graffiti
• Hindu men caught doing anti-Sikh graffiti in the Canada and Australia
• One accusation of graffiti found to be completely false
• The fact only a Sikh org offered a reward ($10,000) to find the culprits, and such effort has not been matched by Indian groups

The reaction of countless Indian nationalists on social media baselessly blaming the incident on “Sikh extremism” led to various members of the community, including prominent activists, countering the accusations.

Pritpal Singh of the American Sikh Caucus Committee shared a statement which said the “unfounded accusations” against Sikhs were “dangerous”, whilst urging anyone with info of the crimes to contact the FBI.

Meanwhile respected Canadian community figure Jaskaran Singh Sandhu revealed that from his own investigations with “Canadian officials and police” the “false-flag is the leading theory” behind the graffiti, which some suggest is evident from the lack of police urgency to tackle the issue.

The graffiti is considered by many to be part of a pattern of global attempts to malign and disrupt Sikh activism, much of which revolves around exposing the Indian State’s mass breaches of Sikh human rights in the country, such as the ongoing genocide, political prisoners and more.

The Indian State’s anti-Sikh transnational repression program became a target of Canadian and US authorities in 2023 as it became increasingly murderous, exposing the ongoing issue to the world.

Media inquiries- media@sikhpa.com.