This past weekend, a large scale protest was held outside the SAP center in San Jose, California, to “un-welcome” the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In response to the protest, Adelle Nazarian from Breitbart News Network, referred to the activism and protest as a “display of tremendous disrespect”.
Nazarian’s publication was heavily opinionated and if she were an unbiased journalist, she would not insert her own opinions about how a subjugated minority community in India expresses themselves at a protest. Nazarian is a not part of our movement or struggle, and her objective should have been to only report on the facts relating to the protest. However, her bias against the Sikhs for protesting is clearly evident as instead of reporting on the views of the protesters, she used her own judgments and opinions.
In particular, Adelle Nazarian seemed upset at the hitting of shoes on Modi’s picture by some protesters. Hitting shoes on Modi’s picture was a form of activism that displays resistance against his oppressive power.
In her article, Nazarian fails to mention that pro-Modi supporters tore a poster of Sri Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple), causing great disrespect to the Sikh community. She also fails to address the slogans, insults, and derogatory remarks used against protesters by pro-Modi supporters. In addition, she did not recognize numerous posters that were used to explain the purpose of protesting against PM Modi. While we were protesting against the terrorizing laws and the fascist Indian State, Modi supporters insulted our way of life and attacked us.
While quoting a protester named “Jugher Singh”, Nazarian dismisses his views in support of PM Modi. She uses quotes from one person without giving context to the protesters or addressing why they are at the protest. The article also uses dictions such as “blames” when in fact Modi’s involvement in human rights violations is factual.
Nazarian then quotes another Sikh, this time a Modi supporter who states that Modi “always talks about 1.25 billion Indians”. By using two opposing views, she pitted two Sikhs against each other without giving context to the first Sikh man. She uses the first Sikh man to make her point that it was irrelevant and senseless to protest against Narendra Modi. From the lack of details on first Sikh’s statement and elaborate coverage of the second’s views, it is evident that Nazarian holds an anti-Sikh struggle agenda.
Breitbart “journalist” is doing the same that Modi is accused of doing in India: ignoring the plight of minorities. By not addressing and recognizing their rights, Prime Minister of India has proven that minorities in India are subject to be treated as second class citizens. Nazarian is helping Modi further his agenda.
If Nazarian wanted to deliver a balanced piece, she would have researched relevant historical information and current incidents in India involving minority communities. In fact, many university faculty members in the United States wrote a statement reminding the Silicon Valley technology enterprises that Mr. Modi was denied entrance to the US from 2005-2014 for his involvement in the Gujarat violence. These academics had identified various human rights abuses that took place during Modi’s first year as a prime minister.
However despite such evidence proving the abuse of human rights in India, Nazarian fails to understand why many Sikhs seek a separate nation. By stating that “separatism is another name for terrorism”, Nazarian promotes Khalistan as a terrifying idea. This interjection automatically assumes and intones that all Khalistani organizations and supporters are terrorists and support violence. This is contrary to the whole idea of Khalistan (defined as “land of the pure”) which would provide equality to all. Unlike a credible journalist, Adelle Nazarian has used black and white quotes to support her views. Is she trying to make false conclusions that hundreds of Sikhs protesting against Modi and in favor of a sovereign Sikh state are terrorists?
The question is: When India got independence from the British, was that terrorism? What about the Scotland referendum just held recently? Would all people who voted in favor of Scottish independence be considered terrorists?
Why did the journalist attack Sikh protesters and used quotes that completely misaligned and degrade the Sikh voice?
Punjabi Sikhs made up the majority of the protesters and they should have been taken into account and interviewed more thoroughly, however Nazarian interviewed two or three pro-Modi supporters to undermine the hundreds of Sikhs protesting there. We had every right to be there and protest – which we did so peacefully under the surveillance of the San Jose Police Department, along with many other groups who were also protesting against Modi.
When she was questioned by Sikh youth on Twitter, she becaome defensive and denied using discriminatory language against Sikhs. What Nazarian fails to note is that she carefully tailored her article to ensure that the world only reads one story, and it wasn’t the story of a marginalised and persecuted Sikh community.
She claimed in her tweet that she did her “homework” on both sides. However, she did not discuss any factual evidence such as:
* In 1984, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party instigated military attack on the Golden Temple resulting in the massacre of thousands of Sikh pilgrims. BJP’s involvement in instigating the attack is documented in LK Advani’s autobiography.
* From 1984 to 1995, the Indian Government continued a massive movement of killing of any and all Amritdhari Sikhs, mainly young Singhs, to wipe out a generation of Punjabi Sikhs.
* Modi’s Government is directly responsible for the plight of hundreds of Sikh farmers in Gujarat who were forcibly and illegally evicted from their farm lands. There has been a media silence on this ever since Mr. Modi became the Prime Minister of India.
* Modi’s Government has continued to censor Bapu Surat Singh’s 250+ day hunger protest for the release of political prisoners still languishing in jails due to corrupt Indian judicial system. The Government of India has arrested him more four times and force fed. Bapu Surat Singh is a US resident and his son, Ravinder Jeet Singh, a U.S. citizen, was tortured and kept in illegal detention for two months in India. His only crime was that he was looking over the health of his father.
So for those who tell us that things are peaceful in Punjab right now, they are wrong. Although many Sikhs have simply started to accept their slavery, and the moment we question that oppressive system, the Indian Government begins its terror again. However despite such terror, the Sikhs continue their struggle peacefully, as demonstrated by Bapu Surat Singh.
In her article, she conveniently quotes a pro-Modi Sikh man with an opinion, but then goes on to give support to that quote. She purposely does not do that for the first quote that opposes Modi. When multiple people start tweeting at her, she deletes her tweets. This article was meticulously groomed only to present one side of the conversation. It was obvious to anyone who attended the event that the majority of the Punjabi Sikh demographic was present to oppose Modi and the fascist Indian state. She conveniently left Sikhs in protest out of her article and chose to highlight one man.
When others addressed her biased article, she goes on unprofessionally to attack their characters, when they were merely giving her work constructive criticism.
The journalist’s intention with this article was to undermine the Sikh protest, to demean and suppress the Sikh struggle in retuing to highlight injustices, and peacefully establishing a homeland in India. She is a part of the force that oppresses the minority voice and utilizes her power in Western media to do so.
The views in this article are those of the author only and may not represent the views of the editors or publication. Adelle Nazarian’s piece can be found at this link.