Online radicalisation is now emerging as one of the biggest threats to India’s national security. Two interesting reports released by Logically, a global social media and digital platforms monitoring unit, underlined this threat again and exposed the modus operandi of fundamentalist forces.
Online radicalisation in favour of Khalistan
In its recent report, Logically found out that Khalistan supporters, backed by Pakistan, are carrying out an intense online radicalisation campaign. Though this campaign has been going on for quite some time, it was intensified further following Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri’s murder in Amritsar on November 4, 2022. Support poured in for the accused, Sandeep Singh Sunny, across social media platforms. Legal aid was announced for the accused Sunny, by a banned pro-Khalistani outfit called Sikhs for Justice (SFJ). The accused was also linked to ‘Waris Punjab De’ (WPD) leader Amritpal Singh, who is on the run now.
According to this report, followers of Amritpal Singh were also seen coming out in support of Sunny in their posts, calling him a “warrior”. The leader of US-based SFJ, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, leveraged the recent incidents to highlight its agenda and drive the need for a ‘Khalistan Referendum’. Some other users used it to attack the Hindutva ideology and question local Sikh organisations’ allegiance. “Some active pro-Khalistan groups and pages on Facebook have admins with origins in Pakistan, Scotland, and Canada. Likewise, pro-Khalistan activity has witnessed a surge coinciding with the referendums in Europe and Canada over the past year,” the report said.
It is significant to note that the online radicalisation by separatists in favour of Khalistan is spreading across various digital platforms. ‘Free Khalistan Movement’, a private group on Facebook is managed by five different profiles. Two of the five admin accounts originate from Pakistan while one is from Canada and one from Scotland.
Another group, ‘Kashmiri and Khalistani Freedom Fight’, with around 5.1k followers has two admins whose accounts originate from Pakistan. Apart from the name, the description of the group calls India a “big export terrorist country”. Another page, ‘Stay Awake – Jaagde Raho’, with over 30k followers, posts content in favour of Khalistan regularly.
Logically tracked the growing influence of Khalistanis on Instagram also. The report tracked Sikh activist Papalpreet Singh, with 55.7k followers, actively sharing posts with Amritpal Singh and was also seen showing his support for Sandeep Singh Sunny. “His post about Amritpal announcing the ‘Khalsa Vaheer’ programme has garnered over 99,000 likes since it was posted on November 19, 2022,” the report said.
Sikh Youth UK, with 49.9k followers, posted a video of Sandeep Singh Sunny being taken to a court. The caption read- Sandeep Singh present at court showing Chardi Kala (high spirits). Another Instagram account ‘Panjabis in Germany’ (28.1k followers) shared an unverified video of Punjab police confiscating weapons from households at an undisclosed location. The video caption says that the “government had done the same before the 1984 riots. The ones from Shiv Sena who spoke against our Gurus are provided with bullet-proof jackets and gunmen while our identity is being confiscated from our houses.” Accounts of Amritpal Singh and Waris Punjab De are also tagged in the post along with hashtags related to Bhindranwale, Nihang Sikhs, Punjabi singers – Amy Virk and Sidhu Moosewala.
Platforms like Reddit, which are quite popular among the youth, are also being used by the Khalistan supporters. Tik-Toks and other posts calling for the Sikh community to unite for the creation of Khalistan along with the ‘Draft of the Constitution of Khalistan’ were shared on different Reddit communities. The ‘Sikh politics’ community with over 10k followers has users sharing posts related to the ‘Khalistan Referendum’, a draft of the Khalistani Constitution which, a user allegedly claimed, was passed on the 36th Republic Day of India in Amritsar and a video of ‘Waris Punjab De’ head Amritpal Singh in conversation with the California Sikh Youth Alliance.
Online radicalisation and Popular Front of India
In another report titled ‘The Popular Front’s online narratives attempting to radicalise Indian Muslims’, it becomes clear that despite being banned by the Government of India, the Popular Front of India (PFI) operatives remain quite active in the cyberspace and especially on the social media platforms to radicalise Indian Muslims. It may be recalled that the PFI and its affiliate groups were banned by the Indian government on September 28, 2022. After analysing various social media and digital platforms and tracking content posted by around 11,000 handles or social media accounts which were following PFI and its affiliates, Logically’s research shows that despite the ban on PFI, the group and its affiliated outfits received considerable support online and offline. Organisations with similar interests have repeatedly aligned publicly with the PFI.
“The risk of radicalisation of Islamic youth and Indian Muslims remains high given the engagement and influence that the PFI has received at the domestic and international level. The softer narratives used by the PFI around self-determination which are centered around issues like the Hijab protests and the CAA-NRC protests may have helped draw audience members into more radical content. By using divisive political narratives and repeated claims of the ‘otherization’ of Indian Muslims, the PFI’s messaging posed a gateway to more radical propaganda that often calls for war and to take up arms against the Indian government. The consistent usage of words such as ‘fascist’ and ‘genocide’ underscores a deliberate strategy to provoke Indian Muslims and reveals an attempt to radicalise them. The potential of such harmful content online translates into real world harm, as previously as seen in the Udaipur assassination and the Coimbatore blasts in 2022.”
Indian response
The response from the Indian establishment to counter the online radicalisation must be two pronged. First, on the legal front and the second on the front of countering disinformation campaigns. Indian government has made provisions over the past few years to tackle this menace. Under the Sections 124A, 153A, 153B, 295A and 505 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), content posted for online radicalisation is punishable. Additionally, there are provisions under the Information Technology Act (2000) to initiate action and block the social media accounts or digital platforms that are used for serving propaganda.
Potential Threats and Challenges
India is home to more than 700 million internet users now and around 500 million out of them are present on social media. A significant percentage of them are youth and adolescents. One can gauge the extent of potential threats posed by online radicalisation. One of the major challenges in this regard is the emergence of new encrypted platforms which refuse to adhere to Indian rules and regulations. As soon as any platform agrees to adhere to the India regulatory mechanism, in terms of sharing details of its users, new platforms emerge, and the radicalisation drive move to these platforms. Also, Indian authorities have no control over the anti-India content posted from other parts of the world. In view of such a dynamic situation, it is important to have an ever-evolving counter-radicalisation strategy, especially in context of the online radicalisation.
The writer, an author and columnist, has written several books. He tweets @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed are personal.
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