Jatinder Singh: Where's Wasiq? Reflections On An Unreleased Podcast
"I also asked him whether he would be prepared to go on to GB News and provide either a clarification or an apology - he said he would."
Jatinder Singh
September 14, 2023 | 5 min. read | Opinion
On Sunday, August 20, 2023, a large-scale disturbance broke out at a Kabaddi sports event in Derby (UK). Within a few days, 12 people had been charged with offences related to the disturbance, and initial reporting provided no reasons for the incident. The following day, The Times of India reported that “[y]ellow Khalistan flags could be seen on flag poles at the event.”
While the police investigation continues, early indications are that the disturbances had nothing to do with Khalistan but were related to rivalries between groups within the UK.
On August 22, 2023, Nigel Farage, while reporting for the right-leaning GB News, brought on Wasiq Wasiq, a self-described expert on radicalism and terrorism, where it was claimed the finger of blame was being directed at Khalistanis.
Wasiq described the Khalistan movement as a fringe one, that issues from Punjab seem to have spilt over to the UK, and mentioned the flags as possible evidence for this. He then did a dog whistle to GB News’ right-leaning audience by suggesting the home office needed to take this all quite seriously and that the Khalistan movement had gone under the radar and wondered why “a lot of resources have been given to the far-right,” implying the Government was overly focused on the wrong thing. This wouldn’t be the only time Wasiq had employed such tactics to ingratiate himself to his audience.
Further on in the conversation, Nigel brought up the refugee boats crisis in the UK and concerns that Sikhs coming into the country could be Khalistanis. While he admitted he had no evidence for this, again, it was clearly another dog whistle to their right-leaning audience by linking one issue with another that had garnered more attention, namely refugees entering the UK.
Following this broadcast, there was outrage from a number of Sikh organizations, and hundreds complained to Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator. After a number of days, likely feeling the pressure, Wasiq reached out to Ravi Singh of Khalsa Aid, who agreed to meet with him and listen to his apology.
Unfortunately, for Wasiq, many did not accept the apology, and I then requested for him to do a podcast with me, where I could question him in more detail about his expertise. The World Sikh Organization (WSO) graciously agreed to host the interview as part of their podcast series.
On August 29, 2023, we met and talked for about an hour. Wasiq had provided his consent to the interview both in writing as well as on the podcast. Prior to the interview, I had done as deep a dive as I could into his writings and interviews to ascertain exactly what he knew about radicalism, security and terrorism, as well as the Sikhs.
Almost immediately after the interview was over, Wasiq withdrew his consent on the advice of his lawyer and again raised concerns about his safety. WSO is looking into the legality of his request, but rather than wait, I thought I would present my reflection of the on-the-record conversation as well as a deeper insight into Wasiq.
Wasiq has a degree in Music Technology and a Master's Degree in Educational Leadership and is presently doing a Ph.D. at King’s College, London, on the organizational dynamics of terrorist groups. Wasiq is also an Associate Research Fellow for the controversial Henry Jackson Society (HJS), which has been accused of taking money for propaganda pieces. For several years, he has written op-eds for a number of publications on various topics, but mainly on what he calls “Islamism”.
While he has attended one non-academic conference, I found no evidence of him attending any academic ones on terrorism. I also found no peer-reviewed research presented by him on this matter. I also found no evidence he had worked in this area outside of his research fellow position at HJS. So, I did quiz him on exactly how he had become an expert on terrorism, and he could only offer what I had described above - essentially years of writing op-eds and the Ph.D. candidacy.
He came to prominence following the Hindu-Muslim disturbances in Leicester, UK, in 2022. While the government investigation has yet to be finalized, research on the online fanning of tensions did point the finger toward India-based Twitter accounts. Reports from HJS and op-eds by Wasiq instead pointed blame more towards Muslims, downplaying the role of Hindu Nationalists and India.
In his conversations as an ‘expert’ on this across many Indian YouTube channels, he claimed anyone targeting what he considers non-existent Hindutva extremism was really employing “a tactic to divert attention from Islamism.” Interestingly, considering the recent furore it created within India, he almost always talks of ‘Bharat’ and not India and describes the country as having a non-secular Bharat Civilization within a secular state - yet again, another dog whistle - this time to Hindu Nationalists.
People with little knowledge of India or recent Hindu Nationalist politics would not pick up on these things. The dog whistles are quite loud and clear for the rest of us. In an op-ed, he also wrote that Bharat had been attacked by “Islamists” and the Western Elite over its human rights record, which he again downplayed.
With respect to Sikhs, the GB News item was not his first outing. He was on Republic TV to talk about how the UK needed to do more after the Indian Consulate flag incident in March 2023.
In conversations with myself, I asked him whether he considered himself an expert on the Sikhs - he confirmed he was not.
Considering his self-description as a UK terrorism expert, I asked him whether he knew of the West Midlands Three case - he confirmed he did not.
I also quizzed him on whether he understood the anti-Sikh ecosystem created in India through Godi media, and he seemed not to know much about it at all. This is difficult to believe, considering how much he seems to know about Hindutva through his connections in India.
I asked him if he intended to use the furore created as an opportunity to go on Godi media to talk more about the Sikhs - he said it was of no interest to him. Time will tell.
I also asked him whether he would be prepared to go on to GB News and provide either a clarification or an apology - he said he would.
Now that he has suspended his Twitter account and LinkedIn profile, monitoring his interactions and writings has become a little harder. I don’t for one minute believe he won’t speak about the Sikhs again, and in fact, the furore created about his GB News piece will likely ingratiate him more with Godi media. Not only will he continue to see everything through the lens of “Islamism” and downplay Hindutva violence, but he will likely now use his experience with the Sikhs to pontificate on us, too.
To be frank, the podcast was not the gotcha type of questioning some would have liked, but it certainly did show his views on several things and his lack of expertise. I do not for one minute believe the podcast would cause him any safety concerns, but I do think the reassurances he gave and the glaring gaps in his knowledge probably would be more career-damaging than anything else.
Jatinder Singh is National Director for Khalsa Aid Canada and often writes about anti-Sikh bias and misinformation, surveillance of Sikhs and foreign interference.
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The Henry Jackson society has likely rented itself to Indian interests, given it’s a registered charity the U.K. charity commission should investigate it, however Shawcross is linked to both HJS and the charity commission.
HJS also refuses to list its “donors”, so no one knows who is paying them for influence, convenient.
If you think Wasiq is bad wait till you see Littlewood who is also HJS trying to minimise Hindu extremism in the U.K. and push a fake narrative of Sikh extremism.