The denial of entry into India to Darshan Singh Dhaliwal – a well-known Sikh from USA for his support to Farmers’ protest in India, and similar denial to other Sikhs from abroad in recent times for the same reason has infuriated the Sikh community worldwide. The Sikhs who have been subjected to this treatment are neither separatists nor terrorists. They are not supporting a mutiny, an uprising, an insurrection against India. What they are doing is supporting their families and friends who are agitating against laws which hurt them. Imagine the panic of government of India which is so unnerved by a few NRI’s running langar (free kitchen) for the protesting farmers that it decided to revoke the OCI cards of a dozen of them. It is unimaginable that a sane government will take such cowardly action against the people who have impeccable credentials of being the best sons and daughters of India. The protestersare expressing their unhappiness with the farm laws in   a way permitted by democratic norms and the constitution of India. Any support to them by Indians abroad is permissible under international law and does not transgress the Indian laws. Unfortunately, it has become a fashion with government of India to term any opposition to their whims as an anti-national act. Sedition law has never been used so unsparingly as under the Modi government. India that opposed the British rule for imposing harsh and restrictivelaws that impinged on their liberty under which there was no scope for a lawyer, or an appeal, or an argument (“na vakil, na appeal, na daleel”) is now witnessing the return of those laws under this dictatorial regime.

May be, the government wants to provoke the Sikh community with a view to creating an atmosphere of violence, particularly in Punjab. A few incidents of violence will give GOI the grounds to impose restrictive laws in Punjab. BSF presence and powers it has been armed with is an indication. Captain Amarinder Singh who has been alleging arrival of drugs and weapons into Punjab from across the border is likely to be an important player in the GOI game plan. Both the BJP and Captain will be happy to create a situation wherein emergency laws are put into effect serving two vital ends: crushing the farmers protest and preventing a State government in which they are not the partners. Both the BJP and Captain Amarinder Singh know well they will be rejected by people of Punjab and have no chance to form a government in Punjab. Playing politics is the business of politicians, no doubt, but playing politics to harm the nation is sedition. All this goes against the long-term interests of the nation as diverse and populated as India is.