The 'Yoga & Chai' plot behind R-Day violence

Story by  ATV | Posted by  Aasha Khosa • 3 Years ago
Poetic Justice Foundation's Twitter post
Poetic Justice Foundation's Twitter post

 

Aasha Khosa/New Delhi

If the barbarism unleashed in the name of farmers on the Delhi policemen at Red Fort left many Indians puzzled at the motive behind its perpetrators, here is what it was all about: disrupting the ‘Yoga and Chai’ image of India before the world.

This is revealed in a document of ‘Poetic Justice Foundation,’ a hitherto unknown Canada-based organisation, that was inadvertently leaked on social media by the climate change activist Greta Thunberg during her Twitter spat with Indians as she extended her support to the ongoing farmers’ strike.

This document was later deleted by its authors and "updated" few days after, deleting crucial details of how they planned the January 26 violence in Delhi weeks in advance and the logo of 'Poetic Justice Foundation' itself. This logo was present in each page of the document in its deleted version. Thankfully, its screenshots were saved by various individuals, media persons and security agencies, enabling them to trace the 'Poetic Justice Foundation's' footprints.  

The immaculately drafted (deleted) document “Global Day of Action: Protesting for Farmers on India’s Republic Day January 26, 2021,’ lists the objective of the protests as follows:

  • Repeal of Farm Bills
  • Expose fascist response to dissent
  • Expose corruption of big business, media in India
  • Expose the ‘yoga and chai’ image of India in general
  • Educate Punjabi/South Asian communities on issue
  • Unified Global disruption in the Diaspora on January 26

The chai and Yoga remark is a clear reference to the soft power India wields across the world and that was taken to a new level after Delhi shipped consignments of medicines and COVID vaccines to various needy countries, as a gift in some cases, in the crucial time of Corona pandemic.

Though the document has no hint of Pakistan’s hand, it’s anyone’s guess as to which country is miffed at the rising soft and now hard power of India. It’s no secret that Pakistani analysts and retired Generals including former President Pervez Musharraf are on record to have demanded their country must support Khalistan. They see Khalistan as one of India’s fault lines that Pakistan should exploit.

It is interesting to mention that last year a Canadian security think tank MacDonald-Laurier Institute had released a research-based report of noted journalist Terry Milewski titled ‘Khalistan: A project of Pakistan’ that said Khalistan movement is nurtured by Pakistan the world over and it threatens the security of India and Canada alike.

The Poetic Justice Foundation website doesn’t offer insights into its organization. However, its twitter account is singularly focused on farmers’ protests in India and those in other parts of the world in their support.

Again, while protests are going on at three venues, its singular focus is on the Singhu border where the farmers from Punjab and Haryana are mostly Sikhs.

Its founder MO Dhaliwal introduces himself as ‘Founder and Director of Strategy at Skyrocket. Build brands and digital products by day. Agitate by night, Poetic justice Foundation Interested in Haq and history’ on Twitter.

The Poetic Justice Foundation claims its goal is to ‘educate, organize and mobilize Canandians to achieve and protect equal rights in all aspects of social, political and economic life.’

Canada is home to a large Indian population and the Sikhs far outnumber other communities. The Khalistani movement was once strong there; its members were found involved in killing a moderate Sikh journalist and were also in a mid-air explosion in Air India’s Kanishka airplane in which 329 people were killed in the year 1985.

Besides the current protest of farmers, the only other post the Foundation dates to October 8, 2020. It’s for seeking support for an event “Khalistan: Trauma, Racism and Sovereignty.”

Another of MO Dhaliwal’s posts of December 7, 2020, is explicitly about Khalistan. “Being Khalistani isn’t a bad thing. That is part of the problem with the farming #Khalistan is a bogeyman used to delegitimize us constantly whereas there are movements for independence and self-determination that don’t get vilified.’

The documents released by Greta gave away the deep interest the Poetic Justice Foundation has in the farmers’ strike becoming part of its ‘battle towards the war,’ a euphemism used for achieving something bigger.

The document is a slideshow starting with a timeline. As per it, on January 3, it hosted the first ‘Discovery and planning meeting.’ Five days later, its unnamed members met to finalize ‘hashtags and taglines’ that were eventually used for seeking global attention on farmers and spreading falsehoods to project that India was using force against poor farmers.

It also listed the days to finalize and distribute media kits and January 26 protests.

Now interestingly, the Foundation also talks about challenges before it achieves its objective: It is ‘unclear how Indian state is relevant outside; not knowing who the leaders are on the ground and the cherry on the cake is ‘winning the battle as a step towards the war.”

The document also warns of the possibilities of the situation as it plans for January 26. On the positive side, it says the ‘energy and national support for farmers’; its weakness is there being no plan beyond the repeal (of farm laws).’

Lastly, it says there is a threat of the protests being seen as ‘overtly Khalistani.’

Does one need more proof of the ‘war’ that the Poetic Justice Foundation is targeting through the January 26 battle?