{UAH} Is Trudeau ‘hobnobbing’ with terrorists? Why India doesn’t trust Canada all that much
|
6:34 AM |
No comments |
National Post
It's pretty clear by now that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is not having the most productive time in India. His itinerary is unusually light and, according to Indian media, high profile politicians seem to be actively avoiding him.
And that was before Sophie Gregoire Trudeau posed with a Surrey businessman, Jaspal Atwal, convicted in a 1986 terrorist shooting in B.C. during the family's trip to India.
It's nothing new that Canada and India aren't on good terms. Below, a brief summary of all the other signs of our strained relationship with the world's largest democracy.
Trudeau had to specifically assure India that he opposes its breakup
It's never a great sign when a visiting foreign leader feels the need to state that he thinks the potentially violent breakup of their country is a bad thing. "We support one united India," Trudeau said in Mumbai this week. He had to say this due to Canada's long reputation as a home for a diaspora of Sikh fundamentalists who seek to carve an independent Sikh homeland, Khalistan, out of India. This issue boiled over into devastating violence in India in the 1980s, with vicious anti-Sikh pogroms, a pro-Khalistan insurgency and brutal crackdowns by the Indian military. Most notably for Canada, 1985 saw Canadian Sikh fundamentalists perpetrate the bombing of Air India flight 182, still our worst-ever act of terrorism. The era was like a deadlier version of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, and there are real fears in India that pro-Khalistan elements living in Canada will one day bring it back. "Indians remain puzzled as well as angry about the perceived (by them) tolerance by Canadian governments of supporters of what was a very brutal Khalistan terrorist period," Canadian academic Ramesh Thakur, a critic of Trudeau's Indian relations, told the National Post in an email.
In this photograph taken on June 7, 1984, an Indian Sikh militant throws a tear gas canister back at Indian police after it was fired to breakup violence around the Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, also known as Golden Temple, for the second day, as the news of the death of the Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale spread in Amritsar, Punjab.
Just last month, Narendra Modi urged Trudeau to stop sheltering Indian separatists
In January, Trudeau and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. Indian headlines noted that Modi used the meeting to call on Trudeau to tamp down pro-Khalistani voices within his country. This isn't anything new. When then-prime minister Stephen Harper visited India in 2012, he similarly faced criticism that his government was not doing enough to quash Khalistani separatists. Notably, some of these criticisms were coming from Manmohan Singh, India's first Sikh prime minister. "We can't interfere with the right of political freedom of expression," Harper replied. Trudeau has said much the same. Canada has ascribed terrorist status to violent pro-Khalistan groups such as the International Sikh Youth Federation. However, it is entirely legal for Canadian Sikhs to peacefully advocate for Khalistani separatism. "I think part of Canada's strengths is that we recognize that diversity is a strength and a wide range of opinions and views are an important part of the success of Canada," Trudeau said this week.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday, January 23, 2018 in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum.
Canadian politicians keep showing up to events celebrating Indian terrorists
In 2017 Justin Trudeau visited Toronto's Khalsa Day parade, an event celebrating the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi. Doing this was previously a strict "no-no" for Canadian prime ministers, India's former ambassador to Canada Vishnu Prakash told The Hindu this week. The reason is because the event often features pro-Khalistan flags and displays celebrating Sikh extremists considered terrorists in India. In 2007, then-B.C. premier Gordon Campbell attended a Vaisakhi event that featured a float celebrating Talwinder Singh Parmar, mastermind of the Air India bombing. In 2012, then-immigration minister Jason Kenney was at a Toronto Vaisakhi event when he suddenly stormed out after sensing that a fellow speaker was delivering extremist remarks in Punjabi. "You are trying to exploit my presence here," a visibly angry Kenney told organizers as he left, according to L'actualité. Canadian politicians' obliviousness to Sikh extremism has been a consistent point of concern raised by Ujjal Dosanjh, a former minister of health under prime minister Paul Martin, and the survivor of a serious beating by Sikh fundamentalists in 1985. "The problem is that the politicians at the highest level in this country, of all major political parties, have hobnobbed with Khalistanis," Dosanjh, who was raised Sikh, said in an interview this week with India's The Print.
Magazine cover of Outlook India (Feb. 2018).
An Indian magazine accused Trudeau's cabinet of being packed with Khalistani sympathizers
Just before Trudeau's visit, the magazine Outlook India published a series of articles warning that Canada was nurturing a resurgence of Khalistani terrorism. Included in the issue was an interview with Amarinder Singh, chief minister of Punjab, who said "there seems to be evidence that there are Khalistani sympathizers in Trudeau's cabinet." The comments prompted an immediate pushback from defence minister Harjit Sajjan and infrastructure minister Amarjeet Sohi, two of the four Sikhs in Trudeau's cabinet. "I've been a police officer, I've served my country and any allegations like that is absolutely ridiculous and I find it extremely offensive as well," said Sajjan. Sohi, in turn, has personal cause to doubt the Indian government's accuracy in designating terrorist sympathizers. The future Edmonton MP was studying in India in the late 1980s when he decided to join a protest in support of land reform. The action got him arrested and tortured by Indian police. "When they saw me, a Sikh, there from Punjab and from Canada, they said, 'We must have a terrorist here,'" Sohi later told Postmedia. Trudeau met with Amarinder Singh this week, and reiterated his opposition to any separatist movement in India. The Punjab chief minister call his remarks a "big relief."
Really happy to receive categorical assurance from Canadian PM @JustinTrudeau that his country does not support any separatist movement. His words are a big relief to all of us here in India and we look forward to his government's support in tackling fringe separatist elements.
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) February 21, 2018
Ontario's legislature has officially labeled India guilty of genocide
After Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984, brutal anti-Sikh pogroms broke out in Delhi. Violent mobs, many of them operating with support from Gandhi's Indian National Congress, murdered thousands of Sikhs over a period of four days. While the tragedy is condemned worldwide as a particularly dark moment in modern Indian history, only the Ontario legislature has taken the odd step of officially labelling the tragedy a "genocide." Which is to say, Ontario has deemed it a systematic attempt to exterminate India's Sikhs. Normally, Canadian governments are very hesitant to use the word "genocide," reserving the term only for prolonged and calculated acts of mass murder, such as the Holocaust or the Ukrainian Holodomor. However, the resolution, introduced by Liberal Harinder Malhi, was passed by a mere 34 MPPs. An Indian government spokesman subsequently deemed the resolution a "misguided motion which is based on a limited understanding of India, its constitution, society, ethos, rule of law and the judicial process." Defence minister Harjit Sajjan had to actively distance himself from the resolution during a 2017 visit to India.
In this Nov. 6, 1984 file photo, members of the Indian Sikh community, whose house were attacked, burned and looted by mobs of Hindus, collect their looted property at a police station in New Delhi, India. (AP Photo/Peter Kemp, File)
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has been accused of trying to "spread trouble" in India
Some Indian media celebrated when Jagmeet Singh became the first non-white politician with a potential chance of becoming Canadian prime minister. However, the criminal defence lawyer and Ontario MPP has generally had a difficult relationship with India. Singh was denied a visa to the country in 2013, purportedly due to his advocacy of Sikh causes in the Ontario legislature, including support for the 1984 pogroms to be labelled a genocide. When Singh won, a Times of India story noted that his victory was cheered on social media by Gajinder Singh, a Sikh separatist who is among India's most wanted criminals. In October, when Singh appeared to endorse a referendum on Punjabi independence from India, he earned a sharp rebuke from Amarinder Singh. "This was clearly designed to spread trouble in Punjab. My government will not allow any such attempt to succeed at any cost," said the Punjabi chief minister, who is himself a Sikh. The NDP leader, in turn, has accused Indian diplomats of secretly conspiring to derail his leadership campaign. India's suspicion of the NDP leader was not helped when, on his first day on the job, Singh told CBC's Terry Milewski that it's not clear who is responsible for the Air India bombing. This is despite various inquiries and court decisions clearly identifying the mastermind as Talwinder Singh Parmar, a militant pro-Khalistani Sikh killed by Indian police in 1992.
And of course, Canada utterly failed to prevent the Air India bombing
There's no way to sugarcoat it: Pro-Khalistani terrorists in British Columbia conceived, planned and executed the bombing of a civilian airliner, despite being under surveillance by Canadian law enforcement (a CSIS agent was even present at a testing of the bomb that brought down the plane). Then, Canada botched the subsequent investigation so badly that only conspirator, Inderjit Singh Reyat, was ever convicted — and he's already out of jail. "I just feel like I have been kicked in the head once more by Canada and the system," Anil Singh Hanse, daughter of the flight's pilot, told Postmedia last year after Reyat's release. In sum, India has some basis to assume that if a new Khalistani terrorist threat is truly taking root in Canada, we are uniquely unqualified to prevent it.
In this 2010 photo, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur visit the Canadian memorial for victims of the bombing of Air India Flight 182. The prime minister was in Canada for the G20 summit.
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment