On March 18, Daljeet Kalsi, a close aide and financer of Amritpal Singh, was arrested by Punjab Police with the help of Haryana Police from Gurugram. Kalsi is a Punjabi actor who was also actively involved with actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu. Earlier, OpIndia reported how Amritpal Singh was using social media to gain followers on the ground. We accessed a few Clubhouse discussions and the report can be checked here.
In one of the discussions, Kalsi was also a speaker and talked about his experience with the so-called Hindi imposition in a mall in Chandigarh.
Who is Daljeet Kalsi?
Daljeet Singh Kalsi alias Sarabjeet Singh Kalsi is a popular Punjabi actor. He is best known for Sardar Saab and Jagga Jiunde E. Kalsi was a close aide of the founder of Waris Punjab De and actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu. Like Sidhu, Kalsi also propagated for Khalistan. After Sidhu’s death, he got associated with Amritpal Singh. It is believed that Kalsi was not only financing Amritpal Singh’s endeavours in Punjab but also played a vital role in bringing him from Dubai and establishing him as the organisation’s chief.
Notably, the family of Deep Sidhu has claimed they have no links to Amritpal Singh. Sidhu’s brother claimed that two organisations named Waris Punjab De and Amritpal Singh use ‘Warris Panj-ab De’ as spellings. His family claimed Amritpal’s organisation was not the original one, as Sidhu did not name him as his successor.
Tracking Kalsi’s association with Sidhu and Amritpal
OpIndia tracked Kalsi’s association with Deep Sidhu and Amritpal Singh via his social media posts. Kalsi has been active on Instagram since June 2015. His Twitter account was created in 2010, and his Facebook page was created in 2012. Notably, his Facebook page’s access has been blocked in India. His social media accounts remained mostly about his film career, family and friends. However, things changed with the farmer protests that started after the Government of India implemented the now-repealed three Agriculture Laws.
His first appearance at a protest site appeared on social media on October 6, 2020, when he went to Shambhu Morcha.
On November 22, he published a photograph with Deep Sidhu and talked about going to Shambhu Morcha with him. Deep Sidhu became an integral part of the Shambhu Morcha, a protesting group that was settled at the Shambhu Barrier between Punjab and Haryana for over two months. Deep Sidhu and other members of the Punjabi film fraternity went to the protest site to extend their support. What made him stand apart was the fact that Sidhu remained there for over two months and then moved with the group to the Delhi border to continue protests.
Interestingly, between October 6 to November 22, one incident particularly caught the eyes of the media. On October 27, a youth raised the ‘Khalistan Zindabad‘ slogan at the protest site. He was caught by Advocate Hakam Singh immediately and handed over to the Police present there. Irked by the slogan, Hakam Singh, a management team member, offered to become the complainant in the matter. By then, Deep Sidhu was among the management at the protest site. Sidhu was not pleased with the action taken by Hakam Singh and expelled him from the team.
On November 29, another photo appeared on Instagram in which he was seen with Deep Sidhu and others. The group was heading towards Delhi to participate in the farmer protests.
Instigating his followers against the Indian government, Daljeet wrote in a post on January 6, 2021, that the situation in the country was bad. “India will cease to exist after cheating farmers,” he wrote. In a set of photographs, Kalsi was seen talking to the media. Kalsi and Deep Sidhu used their popularity and communication skills to become the frontrunners at the protest sites as the media preferred people with skills, fame and “knowledge” for bytes. Deep Sidhu became the face of the protests and Kalsi became a strong supporter who often gave bytes to the media himself.
On May 6, 2021, he published a photograph with Deep Sidhu and controversial Sikh preacher Barjinder Singh Parwana who was later arrested for instigating Sikh youth during Patiala violence in May 2022. Parwana is chief of Damdami Taksal Jatha Rajpura. He came out to support assailants who killed an Army personnel over alleged sacrilege in July 2021.
Daljeet Kalsi appeared to be involved in the election campaign for Simarjit Singh Mann who was elected as Lok Sabha MP from Sangrur. Mann also contested the election for Punjab Assembly against Jaswant Singh Gajjamajra in Amargath Assembly Constituency but could not win.
However, when the by-poll for the Sangrur Lok Sbaha constituency was vacated after then-MP Bhagwant Mann became Chief Minister of Punjab, Mann contested from the Sangrur seat and won by a margin of over 5,800 votes. Kalsi’s photographs with Mann in a rally after winning by-polls speak a lot about his association with him. Recently, Simranjit Singh Mann’s account was withheld in India.
Kalsi was one of the four key members who announced Amritpal Singh as the new chief of Waris Punjab De. In a video statement, he called Amritpal Singh “equal to Deep Sidhu”.
In April, he went to Dubai and met Amritpal. A photograph was shared on Instagram.
In September 2022, after Amritpal returned to India, they announced that he would officially take over the organisation at an event in the village of Rohde, Punjab, the birthplace of Khalistani terrorist Bhindranwale.
After that, he consistently posted about Amritpal Singh, Khalsa Vaheer (the march that Amritpal Singh took across Punjab) and more. During the Ajnala incident, Kalsi not only shared Amritpal Singh’s appeal video to his followers to reach Ajnala but also actively shared videos of the attack on the police station.
He gave the title to a video “When we arrive today, the atmosphere will get heated” on the day the Ajnala incident took place hinting at possible agitation.
A snapshot of video at Ajnala Police Station.
Daljeet Kalsi’s track on social media makes it evident that he was not only a close aide of Deep Sidhu but also played an important role in establishing Amritpal Singh as the chief of Waris Punjab De.
