In his brief speech in the video, given during the January 26 protest at the Indian consulate in Vancouver, Dhaliwal says: “If the farm bills get repealed tomorrow, that is not a victory. This battle begins with the repeal of the farm bills, it does not end there. Let no one tell you that this battle is going to end with the repeal of the farm bills. That is because they are trying to drain energy from this movement. They are trying to tell you that you are separate from Punjab, and you are separate from the Khalistan movement. You are not.” The video was purportedly shot during a protest outside the Indian consulate in Vancouver. However, TOI has been unable to ascertain the veracity of the video.
Dhaliwal is linked to the Poetic Justice Foundation – which is under Delhi Police’s scanner for allegedly creating the controversial toolkit that was tweeted by Thunberg. In one of his Facebook posts, Dhaliwal said the foundation was founded by his friend Anita Lal. Dhaliwal is also the co-founder and chief strategist of Skyrocket, a digital branding creative agency that he founded in Vancouver in 2011.
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The video has come as a surprise as till recently, he was popular in Canadian-Sikh and Punjabi circles for his entrepreneurial skills and launching Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration Society and not for his political views or support for Khalistan. His understanding of Sikh issues or politics can be gauged from the fact that in 2015, the Bhangra festival by the Society was scheduled in the first week of June – coinciding with the anniversary of Operation Blue Star. After an uproar in the Canadian-Sikh community, his organisation issued an apology, incidentally via Anita Lal. Enquiries from Sikh circles in Canada revealed that it was after this incident that Dhaliwal, now in his mid-40s, started studying Sikh issues more keenly.
In a post on his FB page on September 17, 2020, he had said: “I am a Khalistani. You might not know this about me. Why? Because Khalistan is an idea. Khalistan is a living, breathing movement…” In the post, he also wrote that he was six years old in 1984. On June 3, 2020 he posted a photograph of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, with the lines, “Freedom from slavery is achieved only when a person starts to feel and understand that he would prefer death to life as a slave.”
On his Facebook page, Dhaliwal has also posted photographs with Canada’s NDP member Jagmeet Singh Dhaliwal, who has roots in Thikriwal village of Punjab’s Barnala district. Inquiries in the village about Dhaliwal did not elicit any response. None of the villagers could confirm his link with the village. “We have never heard about Mo Dhaliwal. We only know about Jagmeet. We have no idea pictures of Mo have been found with Jagmeet,” said Gurdial Singh who has been living in Thikriwal for decades.
Punjab farm bodies too were quick to confirm that that they had never heard of Mo.