Jaskaran Sandhu
November 13, 2024
A recent Freedom of Information request in connection to three mandir vandalisms in the Melbourne area from January 2023 raises new details and questions on who graffitied the Hindu temples.
Large swaths of the Victoria Police report have been redacted under Section 31 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982, as the information if released may “prejudice the investigation,” according to Brett Shenton, a Senior Sergeant and Assistant Freedom of Information Officer.
“I am advised that the investigation is unsolved,” he writes in the cover letter explaining his decision.
The reporting party (RP) “is looking through CCTV from the temple,” the disclosed police report reads in regards to the January 12, 2023, vandalism incident at the BAPS Mandir in Mill Park, adding that the RP was initially “notified of the graffiti via a video on social media or via an Indian newspaper website, which showed the damage done.”
One website to have first claimed that there was a video at that time appears to be the Australia Today, a pro-India web portal known for writing in favour of the Modi government and against the Sikh community. The Australia Today has had to issue public apologies in the past to Sikhs for false reporting about the community and its members. More recently, the Australia Today also falsely accused the Canadian government of blocking its Facebook and Instagram pages in Canada. They eventually retracted their claim, but not before it found its way into national Indian media and disinformation ecosystems.
“The Australia Today can reveal that the Khalistani extremists recorded a video of their despicable act of vandalising the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir,” they wrote at the time of the Melbourne vandalisms. “Our editorial team has decided not to put that video here,” they go on to say, offering instead a heavily redacted screenshot of a tweet with a video.
Although Australia Today would claim that the video was being circulated online amongst Sikhs, Baaz was not able to find any copies or evidence of such. It does not appear from the redacted report that the police were given a copy of the social media video either.
Australia Today’s baseless accusations of “Khalistan extremists” vandalizing mandirs, and how Hindus now feared for their safety in Australia, would eventually be picked up by major Indian media outlets, and used to make unfounded claims against Sikhs.
Vishva Hindu Parishad of Australia, another pro-Modi organization, also released a statement whereby they asserted, again with no evidence, that “Khalistani Extremists vandalized and defaced” the BAPS Mandir.
There has been nothing to suggest since that Sikhs were behind the graffiti. No arrests or charges have been made in connection to the incidents in Melbourne.
The police report goes on to add that the “RP did not watch the video on social media, however stated that the video was pulled from Twitter before the post was deleted/takendown and he does not know the Twitter profile which posted the video.”
In total, three mandirs in the Melbourne area would be vandalized in a span of 11 days, beginning on January 12 and ending on January 23, 2023. The vandalisms all came right before the planned Khalistan Referendum in the city, which was held on January 29, 2023, with tens of thousands of Sikhs participating. A pattern seen in other cities and countries in the Sikh and Indian diaspora.
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“RP stated a similar incident had occurred in Toronto, Canada, at a similar temple recently and the attack appeared identical,” the Victoria Police report shares.
A BAPS Mandir had been vandalized in Toronto around September 2022 as well. That incident occurred in the lead up to Khalistan Referendum in Brampton, which would eventually see approximately 100,000 Sikhs participate. It was one of many mandirs to eventually be vandalized in the region.
Investigations in the Greater Toronto Area are all underway still. However, multiple sources within relevant police forces, as well as officials with knowledge of the investigations, have shared with Baaz that a “false flag” operation has not been ruled out, and in fact is one of the leading theories. It is believed, similar to what was found by Queensland Police in Brisbane, Australia, that Hindu groups may be behind the vandalism of their own temples in order to malign the Sikh community, and raise political acceptance around the concept of “Hinduphobia.”
The Ontario Gurdwaras Committee (OGC), one of the largest gurdwara associations in Canada, put up a $10,000 reward for any information that would lead to arrests in regards to the vandalisms that have happened in the GTA. No Hindu group of mandirs have matched the reward for information or offered incentives of their own.
Sikh in Canada have also gone to social media to offer mandirs CCTV cameras or repairs, as some temples have had their camera systems fail in and around the occurrences of the vandalisms, making police investigations difficult and frustrating investigators, sources share.
In September 2023, Queensland Police disclosure, made available after a Right to Information request, showed that police intelligence believed that a Mandir vandalism in Brisbane, Australia, on March 4, 2023, “may have been done by Hindus themselves” to counter the Khalistan Referendum and build mainstream acceptance around “Hinduphobia.” They raised suspicion about CCTV cameras not working, a common feature of vandalisms in Canada and elsewhere as well.
Queensland Police also shared that a review of other Mandir graffiti incidents in Australia displayed “similarities in the manner which they were written” and could be part of the same false flag operations, referring to the vandalisms in Melbourne earlier in the year.
In early May, 2023, NSW Police also released CCTV footage related to a mandir vandalism in Sydney too. The graffiti was of similar nature to those earlier in the year from Melbourne and Brisbane. The footage released should a suspected getaway car, with large decals on the side spelling out Haryana, a state known for its staunch support of Hindu Nationalism.