In his many appearances in the mainstream media, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun comes off as an eminently reasonable face of the Sikh independence movement.

The Canadian-American lawyer accurately describes the global referendum he spearheads as a non-violent, democratic way to pursue turning India’s Punjab state into a separate nation. And he understandably condemns the assassination plots against him and other Sikh activists that U.S. and Canadian police have linked to the Indian government.