On February 3, environmental activist Greta Thunberg accidentally exposed how anti-India forces are trying to create unrest in India. Her multi-layered document named ‘Toolkit’ exposed several organizations, celebrities, and leaders for conspiring against India. One such name that popped up is the Poetic Justice Foundation.
Co-founded by Mo Dhaliwal, a Canadian resident and Khalistan supporter, and Anita Lal, another resident of Canada and Khalistan supporter, Poetic Justice Foundation started a campaign under the ‘Global Day of Action’ format.
According to the document accessed of the Poetic Justice Foundation campaign, it had a dedicated plan that went back as far as January 3, 2021. The group provided taglines, hashtags, tweet formats, posters, media kits, printable artwork and much more for the people who wanted to support them in the campaign. By January 20, they had sent the material and kits to everyone who had shown interest using their Google Form for the same.
Here are some media files that they had shared in their media kit. These images/posters were used extensively on social media platforms. The plan that they had laid down was extensive, well researched and quite successful too.
This is one of the images available in media kit. This image is from November and it is available on Shutterstock. When we tried to access the shutterstock page of this image through reverse searching the image, it said, “This content is restricted.”
These images/posters were shared on PJF’s and ‘Ask India Why’ campaign’s social media pages. These images/posters were available in vector format. The maximum size that one can print was 10ft x 20ft. Here are four examples of such posters.
We searched some of these images/posters and found many accounts that had shared them especially on Instagram and Facebook. Notably, private accounts that have shared these images will not appear in hashtag search. Thus, exact number of accounts involved in the propaganda cannot be determined. Here are screenshots of some of the accounts.
Key target regions
The group identified several key target regions to spread their propaganda. Top among them were Canada, USA, UK, and Australia, where Sikhs and Punjabis prefer to study, work and settle down. Other target regions included Kenya, Denmark, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.
In its document, the organization urged its supporters to use the medium of communication that they find is the best to reach out to the masses in their area.
They also urged them to spread the material they provided among Sangat of Regional Organizations (Sangat is often used for a group of people attending religious or cultural gatherings). Using such groups, they aimed at spreading their propaganda among the masses using social media and mainstream or vernacular media.
They said, “In gaining media traction, our job is to make the journalists’ job easier. We will craft template press releases, and gather relevant data and content from vetted sources and place everything at a single, downloadable location. When engaging media organizations, our global Sangat of protest organizers will be armed with everything, they need to convincingly pitch the story to their local media outlets.”
Their preparation made it clear how well organized and well funded these groups are.
The evergreen messages
Interestingly, in the document, they emphasized the fact that the media should easily repeat the message. They had mentioned a sample of an evergreen message that always catches the eye of the reader. The message read:
We are here to highlight persistent issues with the Indian government:
- oppression of its citizens in favour of corporate interests
- curtailed press freedoms and harassment of independent journalists
- persecution of critics of the government with charges of anti-nationalism
While talking about the ‘evergreen’ message, PJF said that the message should have meaning even if the government decides to repeal the law. That means they are not interested in the farmers’ wellbeing, but their main objective is to cause disruption in India using farmer protests as the shoulder to shoot their guns.
Subtle mention of support from Pakistan
In the document, PJF subtly mentions how important it is for them that Punjabis and Sikhs from Pakistan join them. They said, “There are 3 Punjabs: East, West and the one that lays over the entire world like fine lace…. the Diaspora.” Here East Punjab is Punjab State in India, West Punjab is Punjab province of Pakistan, and third Punjab refers to Sikhs and Punjabis living across the globe.
Objectives of the campaign include disruption of ‘Yoga-Chai’ image
Among common demands like repeal farm laws (mentioned as bills that raise the question if they were planning all this before the bills were passed in September) and global disruption on January 26, one demand objective that is inclined towards leftist propaganda is to disrupt the ‘yoga’ and ‘chai’ image of India. Both images are currently closely connected to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It is well known that PM Modi had once worked as a tea seller. Also, he had put Yoga on a larger international platform that resulted in the inception of International Yoga Day in 2014. These two aspects of the campaign’s objectives have nothing to do with the farmers, but it is about causing damage to India’s image on an international platform.
Strongly backed by misinformation
If you sit and try to explore what these people are planning and they are moving forward by using misinformation as a tool, it shows how cleverly and subtly they replace correct information with that which are fake. For example, there is a document available on Dailyhive.com where Dhaliwal explains why they are supporting protests.
He said, “The new bill is couched in language that speaks of efficiency and empowerment, removing the “middleman” as if to imply that farmers will somehow be able to capture more profits for themselves by selling directly to buyers.”
In the past, farmer unions, including Bharatiya Kisan Union, have demanded to remove the middleman from the Agriculture sector as they often exploit farmers. At that time they asked the government to define ‘middlemen’, the protesting farmer groups had said that whom the government called ‘middlemen’ were mere service providers who just charged a commission for providing services like unloading trolleys for farmers.
However, this is in complete contradiction to the demands raised by the farmer groups last year. However, Dhaliwal had tried to show if they are the only reason farmers are able to sell crops, which is untrue.
‘Ask India Why’ – propaganda by PJF
Under the ‘Ask India Why’ arm of PJF, the organization urged the public to join in the Global Day of Action not only to put pressure on the Indian government to repeal the laws but to cause more disruption in the future. The plan is not limited to farmer protests, but, as the documents suggest, it extends to making attempts to divide Indians.
The support form reads, “Our goal here is to move from moderate awareness of the issues in India, towards international pressure. Through this, our hope is that not only are the 3 farmer laws repealed, but there is greater international media scrutiny on India as we move forward.” It clearly mentioned they have long-term plans against India.
Ask India Why the campaign is large-scale propaganda against India that will be explored further in our reports.
Mo Dhaliwal and Anita Lal
Mo Dhaliwal is Founder and Director of Strategy at Skyrocket. He co-founded the Poetic Justice Foundation. He is a Khalistan supporter and has openly supported Khalistan. In September, when Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a leading Canadian think tank based out of Ottawa, had released a study on Pakistan’s role in nourishing Khalistani extremism, Dhaliwal used his NGOs platform to support Khalistan.
During the discussion he said that he does not think Khalistan is a problem and backed demanded of a separate country for Sikhs.
Dhaliwal’s father was gunned down by security forces as per a report by News18. Dhaliwal was also spotted outside Indian Embassy raising Khalistani slogans.
Biggest R-Day Violence Revelations.
— News18 (@CNNnews18) February 5, 2021
Minute-by-minute details of the #RepublicDayViolence, only on CNN-News18. Every act was planned.
(Exclusive Input: @manojkumargupta)@AnchorAnandN shares details with @ridhimb. pic.twitter.com/ccIC6GEy3k
Dhaliwal is a close associate Jagmeet Singh, Leader of NDP Canada, who is friends with Rihanna. Notably, Rihanna’s post support farmer protests is allegedly being linked to her connection with Jagmeet Singh.
2. Mo Dhaliwal, Founder of Poetic Justice Foundation, is a close associate Jagmeet Singh, Leader of NDP Canada, who is followed by Rihanna, who a copy pasted a tweet as a pre-planned campaign against India. Connect the dots. #IndiaAgainstPropaganda pic.twitter.com/JFswZzEnSO
— 🇬🇧FISIUK 🇮🇳(Friends of India Soc Intl UK) (@FISI_UK) February 4, 2021
Anita Lal, Community Relations Specialist at Windmill Microlending has co-founded PJF. She is the Executive Director of PJF. She is a Canadian resident a Khalistan supporter.
As per Anita Lal’s LinkedIn profile, she works in Canada and her comment on the 26th Jan violence picture says the rest of the story.https://t.co/iZHCaYFtge
— Par!x!t (@parixit111) February 3, 2021
5/6 pic.twitter.com/X26ux95Dwp
After 26 Jan violence, she replied to a post with Nihang Sikh attacking police personnel and justified the violence.
Anita and Dhaliwal’s Twitter accounts are still active and they are continuously sharing anti-India posts. The Indian security establishment believes that Rihanna was paid by $2.5 million by Skyrocket to tweet in support of the farmer protests.
It is also believed that Poetic Justice Foundation played a “vital role” in “starting a global campaign” and that the campaign had the backing of “political leaders and activists based out of Canada”.
