Celebrating Indira Gandhi’s assassination: Canada has completely lost the plot on Khalistan issue

A controversial six-second clip is being shared widely on social media these days. It features a float being paraded on streets of Canada depicting India’s former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination in the year 1984. This parade was organised by Khalistani elements in Brampton city of Canada to mark the 39th anniversary of Operation Bluestar. Operation Bluestar was a military action sanctioned by PM Indira Gandhi to eliminate Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a Khalistani radical in Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab. It was just two months after this operation that she was assassinated in revenge violence by her own security guards. The parade by Khalistani elements in Canada and the celebration of Indira Gandhi’s assassination are not the only cases of these radicals targeting India on a foreign soil. They have organised anti-India referendums, events, indulged in defacing of Hindu temples and sometimes indulged in blatant violence against Indians in countries such as Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the UK. All these countries are home to a sizeable Indian diaspora, including the people of the Sikh community, thus proving to be a fertile ground for the Khalistani separatists to indulge in anti-India activities. However, this time they have pushed it too far. Canada is home to a large Sikh population that constitutes 2 percent of the total population. This community enjoys a significant clout in the country’s politics. In 2019, Canada had 18 Sikh members of Parliament as against just 13 in India’s Lok Sabha. Jagmeet Singh, a young Sikh lawyer, also leads the New Democratic Party, a major political party in the country that had emerged as a kingmaker in the last federal elections. Jagmeet Singh often tweets in defence of Khalistanis, including during the action on Amritpal Singh last month by India. PM Justin Trudeau himself has been accused of playing to the Sikh gallery for votes where he has gone to the extent of purging references to Khalistani terrorism from official reports in the past. The gurdwara committees in Canada are as powerful as they are in India’s Punjab. Trudeau’s brand of politics is characteristic of the typical liberal paradox where he is willing to surrender to the will of the Khalistanis even if it means compromising with Canada’s own national interest and national security in the long run. There is a precedent for this in the past. In 1985, Khalistani terrorists bombed an Air India flight that took-off from Toronto killing all the 329 people on board. Although most of the people who died in the attack were Canadian citizens, Canada still considers it as an Indian tragedy. Trudeau is so blinded with his vote-bank politics that on a visit to India, he even posed with a Khalistani terrorist accused of attempting assassination of an Indian minister in the 1980s. Even as Canadian politicians indulge in blatant appeasement of the Khalistani elements, Canada’s National Security Adviser Jody Thomas dropped a bomb this week by accusing India of meddling in Canada’s internal affairs. He even put India in the league of authoritarian states such as Iran. The Khalistan issue is proving to be a huge thorn in India-Canada ties. The Khalistanis are not only considered separatists by India threatening its territorial integrity, but they have also become a rallying point for anti-India forces. Their links with the deep state in Pakistan often surface; they have, in fact, become part of Rawalpindi’s bleeding India by thousand cuts design. While Pakistan is a failed state waiting to collapse under its own weight, the Canada-India relationship has a lot of potential. Canada has outlined its Indo-Pacific strategy which interestingly has a key role for India. While identifying its shared values of democracy and pluralism, Canada is looking to deepen economic ties with India. It is also seeking to conclude an early trade deal to this effect. India’s growth and its geopolitical rise will make it an even more important partner for any country to expand its engagement in the Indo-Pacific. The appeasement of Khalistanis on the other hand would lead Canada down to the path of India’s neighbour. In the 21st century, there is no place for celebration of assassinations of key political leaders of a fellow democracy. There is just too much nuisance by Khalistanis that Trudeau has allowed on his watch in the name of freedom of expression. He even expressed concern over India’s crackdown on the farmers’ protest even as he himself opted for an iron hand when a truckers’ protest struck back home. This hypocrisy is nauseating. Canada has expressed regret over this recent incident of parade by Khalistanis, but it clearly needs to do a lot more if it actually wants a fruitful relationship with India. The author is a PhD from the Department of International Relations, South Asian University. She writes on India’s foreign policy. Views expressed are personal.

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