Tuesday Jun 06, 2023
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Greens Senator David Shoebridge has criticized Australian authorities for canceling three seats reserved for the Khalistan Referendum vote in Sydney.
The lawmaker expressed serious concern that a foreign country - the Indian government - was able to use its pressure on Australian authorities through various means to deny local Sikhs their basic right to vote - a right protected by Australian law.
Senator David Shoebridge spoke after three seats reserved for the Khalistan Referendum by the pro-Khalistan Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) were cancelled, but voting went ahead and over 3,1000 Sikhs turned out to vote on 4 July 2023 on the fringes of a hastily booked center in Sydney.
Senator David Shoebridge visited the polling station to show support for Australian Sikhs and their democratic right. He said: “I am here to stand up for Australian Sikhs to express support for their basic democratic human right to express themselves peacefully through the ballot box.
There have been dozens and dozens of referendums on Khalistan in the UK, Canada and Europe, and this is the third in Australia. Sydney is the only place where one venue after another has been canceled after political pressure was applied.
The lawmaker said Australian authorities were complicit in violating the rights of Sikhs.
He said: “When we give in to this kind of political pressure to prevent people from peacefully expressing their will at the ballot box, then it is a fundamental attack on democracy. I stand here with the Sikh community to show solidarity and stand up for their basic rights - the right to exercise their will at the ballot box in a democratic country like Australia. The right to vote is a fundamental Australian. I think it's deeply disturbing that this has happened."
An Australian MP said Sikhs were right to seek answers and justice over the 1984 Golden Temple Amritsar massacre.
Australian Sikhs claimed that extremist Australian Hindutva groups linked to India's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian government-backed Rashtriya Sewak Singh (RSS) were behind the cancellation of the three seats, but failed in a concerted effort to stop the vote in the Sydney Khalistan referendum.
Australian radical Hindutva groups waged a massive campaign to prevent the Sydney Khalistan referendum from going ahead, using India's diplomatic power, mass emailing and raising false security alarms and the specter of violent terrorism. Hindutva groups claimed in their emails to reservation centers that Sikh and Hindu groups would fight publicly and there could be bloodshed and public riots if the vote was allowed.
Leading pro-Khalistan group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) had booked Sydney's Stanhope Leisure Center in Blacktown for the June 4 "Shaheed General Shabeg Singh Voting Centre", but the venue was canceled on May 12. Sydney Masonic Center canceled the booking 10 days before the event. Organizers then booked Cropley's New South Wales home in the Baulkham Hills, which was also canceled by the administration just five days before the event due to security concerns.
24 hours before the event, organizers booked the truck on Sterling Road, Michinbury, in a deserted area about 40 miles from central Sydney.
In a show of defiance of India's actions, thousands of Sikh men arrived at the Shaheed General Shabeg Singh Khalistan Referendum Polling Center on Sterling Road in Michinbury to cast their votes under the supervision of the independent Punjab Referendum Commission, which oversees the global referendum. voting by order of SFJ.
More than 100 officers from the New South Wales Police's riot police set up patrols outside the venue amid fears of violence. Police on horses and bicycles and armed officers were on the scene. Police closed three roads leading to the polling center to prevent any clash.
The Sydney phase of the Khalistan referendum was held to mark the anniversary of the 1984 Amritsar Blue Star Genocide, when thousands of Sikhs were killed by Indian authorities during a bloody attack on Sri Harmandir Sahib (popularly known as the Golden Temple).
Just two weeks before the Khalistan Referendum vote in Sydney, Prime Minister Modi was in Australia where he met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other government officials and urged them to prevent Sikhs from going ahead with the vote, but the Australian government told Modi that all of Canberra respected the position of India and could not prevent its own citizens from expressing their legal and democratic rights. However, Australian councils cooperated with Indian diplomatic missions against the Sikhs.
