September 22, 2023
Canada, India row highlights Khalistan issue
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons on Monday (9/18) that, in recent weeks, national security authorities had been probing allegations that New Delhi was behind a state-sponsored assassination.
“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” he said. “Canada is a rule-of-law country, the protection of our citizens and defence of our sovereignty are fundamental.
“Our top priorities have therefore been one, that our law enforcement and security agencies ensure the continued safety of all Canadians. And two, that all steps be taken to hold perpetrators of this murder to account.”
Trudeau said he raised the issue “in no uncertain terms” with the Indian Prime Minister, Sikhism Narendra Modi, when the two met briefly in New Delhi last week for the G20 summit.
The foreign affairs minister, Mélanie Joly, said Canada had expelled a “key Indian diplomat” and “expects India to fully collaborate with us and ultimately to get to the bottom of this”.
The diplomat expelled by Canada is the head of the Research and Analysis Wing (Raw), India’s foreign intelligence agency in Canada.
“We’ll hold the perpetrators accountable and bring them to justice,” said the public safety minister, Dominic LeBlanc, adding the police was leading the murder investigation.
India’s ministry of external affairs said in a statement it “rejected” statements by Trudeau and his foreign minister, adding that allegations of India’s involvement in any act of violence in Canada are “absurd and motivated”.
Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar
On June 18 Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia. Nijjar had campaigned for an independent Sikh nation – known as Khalistan – to be carved out of India’s Punjab state. He was wanted by Indian authorities and had been designated as a “terrorist” in July 2020.
He had been warned by Canada’s spy agency about threats against him, according to the World Sikh Organization of Canada, which alleged he was “assassinated in a targeted shooting”.
India’s Punjab state – which is about 58% Sikh and 39% Hindu – was rocked by a violent Khalistan separatist movement in the 1980s and early 1990s, in which thousands of people died. Today, that movement’s most vocal advocates are primarily among the Punjabi overseas diaspora.
Canada is home to one of the largest overseas communities of Indian origin, which number approximately 1.4 million out of an overall Canadian population of 40 million. About 770,000 people reported Sikhism as their religion in the 2021 census.
Canada has the highest population of Sikhs outside their home state of Punjab.
India has often complained to Canada’s governments about the activities of Sikh hardliners among the Indian diaspora who, it says, are trying to revive the insurgency.
In June, India’s foreign minister hit out at Canada for allowing a float in a parade depicting the 1984 assassination of the then-Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi by her bodyguards, perceived to be glorification of violence by Sikh separatists.
The Sikh Diaspora
The Sikhs are a unique group of people, in that their religion, beliefs, and collective identity are relatively new in the larger scheme of world history and their population very small, with estimates ranging between 18 to 30 million people globally; and still they have managed to make a prominent mark in the realm of Indian and global affairs, according to Simrat Dhillon.
The Sikh Diaspora has maintained a solid connection both with their homeland of (Indian) Punjab and with their religion, since the first migrants left the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century till the present day through economic and emotional support.
However, the Diaspora’s involvement in Punjab’s political affairs was minimal if not non-existent before the 1980s; its subsequent political mobilization resulted from the assault on the Golden Temple under Operation Blue Star in June 1984 and the backlash of violence against the Sikh community after the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in October 1984.
The Diaspora’s role in the Sikh separatist movement was significant in several ways but most importantly because it quickly internationalized an internal Indian conflict – creating multiple battlefronts for the Indian government in different countries of the world.
Nijjar's death sparked rallies among sections of the Sikh diaspora, posters promoting these events alleged Indian diplomats played a role in the death.
On July 2, 2023 Khalistani supporters set the Indian consulate in San Francisco on fire. The arson attempt was promptly surpressed by the San Francisco Department, resulting in limited damage to the building and no injuries to the staffers present.
A video of the incident was released on Twitter by Khalistani supporters, suggesting the attack was retaliation for the recent death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Chief Editor of the Journal of America (www.journalofamerica.nett) email: asghazali2011 (@) gmail.com
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
