Sikhs living outside India are feeling cornered by the Indian government’s renewed focus on radicalisation and its overt focus on the Khalistani narrative. Most of them, especially moderate Sikhs, feel the use of terms indicating Khalistani revival by the Indian government is marginalising them in their own countries.British commentator and activist of Punjabi origin Sunny Hundal urged the international Sikh community to end infighting and discrimination against women to challenge and rebuff the attacks likely to occur as a result of inevitable ideological clashes with the Indian government in the near future. Hundal feels that the Sikh diaspora is being maligned and undermined by the Indian government exploiting the Khalistani terror funding narrative and feels more needs to be done to tackle this globally.“Questions about justice for 1984 (anti-Sikh riots) and extrajudicial killings will not go away because the Sikhs in Canada and the UK will keep them alive.The Indian government can’t simply call on the Canadian or the UK governments to shut down debate about these or Khalistan in the way that they can in India,” says Hundal, adding that “in India, you are criminalised immediately if you mention Khalistan or ’84. So it’s frustrating for them to see that this debate can happen openly and loudly in Canada and in the UK and they get angry with that.”The Indian government uses the narrative of Sikhs funding terrorism without proof to alarm the Western governments and the media, he claims. “The British and Canadian media have an inbuilt aversion to any political movement that talks about ‘separatism’ (because of Scotland and Quebec ) — which is what Khalistan sounds like to them. If they equate Sikh political activism with demanding Khalistan, they will naturally be hostile to it.”Citing the debacle of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s India trip, he claims the Indian media stoked by unfounded claims attacked Trudeau for being a Khalistani sympathiser and through him attacked the Sikh diaspora in Canada.“Every time a minority has become prominent in a Western country, they start asking questions like, ‘Are these people really ready for political power? Are they going to disrupt our country and the way of doing things?’ That debate needed an outlet in Canada and this whole issue around Khalistan and Jagmeet Singh became the way to pose questions such as ‘Are Sikhs getting too powerful?’ ‘Are they one of us?’” says Hundal.This, Hundal adds, should serve as an indication for more to come as the international Sikh community matures, gains more power and influence and challenges the Indian government more frequently and faces a fierce backlash for the same.Hundal says neither has he ever been a supporter of Khalistan and nor does he claim to be a Sikh leader.Supporting multiple and diverse voices, he feels, is crucial for Sikhs, especially on matters like Khalistan or interfaith marriage. The response to Hundal’s warning that also appeared in an online news magazine "Barfi Culture" that he edits, has been mixed. Many Sikhs have agreed with him while others, in the guise of critiquing the article have attacked him for dismissing the RSS threat.Mainstream voices though are largely in agreement with him. Manjit Gill, CEO and founder of Binti International feels that Hundal’s reading of the situation is accurate. Dr Sujinder Singh Sangha, Sikh author and educationist points out, “Relationship between successive ultra (Sikh) groups and successive Indian governments have always been polarised, but politics of nationalist Sikhs is finding new articulation through involvement of the 3rd and 4th generation Sikh youth, many of whom have never been to India but are deeply agitated by the 1980s history and the failure of government in resolving them justly.”Essayist Amarjit Chandan maintains, “The threat of backlash will remain as long as the Khalistanis by their words and deeds keep on providing opportunities to the Indian state to project them as terrorists.”Dr Opinderjit Takhar, senior lecturer at University of Wolverhampton, reiterates while it’s important to continue to agitate for justice for the 1984 Sikh pogrom, “Not all Sikhs demanding justice for 1984 are also demanding Khalistan.”