Ottawa: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in his second avatar, seems wiser to the separatists living in Canada and advocating violence against India. Most importantly, his minority government is distancing itself from the so-called ‘referendum 2020 for Khalistan.’The bogus ‘referendum’ by the US-based ‘Sikhs For Justice’ group was always a lot of hot air – and with the pandemic bursting the balloon completely, traction for trash talk is low. Canadian members of parliament are increasingly embarrassed by Khalistani voices, at least in public.
It took a lot of pushback from India, and a little self-realisation by Trudeau and the Khalistan-friendly liberals, to face the ugly truth of diaspora politics. Trudeau’s disastrous 2018 trip to India in which a convicted Sikh terrorist was part of his entourage also clarified the mind some. It’s slowly dawning on the ruling Liberal Party that a small group of Canadian Sikhs managed to ruin bilateral relations with India in recent years. No senior Indian official bothered to visit, and slowly, the clueless in Ottawa began to realise that being ‘Khalistan Central’ was not good for Canada.
That a minority within a minority shouldn’t be allowed to intimidate, traumatise and control the half-a-million strong Sikh community, most of whom don’t support extremism. Now Canada appears to be taking some belated action. It helped that India and Canada signed an anti-terrorism cooperation agreement in February 2018. To say that Canada’s learning curve on Khalistan has been long and tortuous would be an understatement. It will be long before the inflated importance of Khalistanis is minimised in Canadian politics, but a few things are changing. It’s slowly dawning on the ruling Liberal Party that a small group of law-breaking Canadian Sikhs managed to ruin bilateral relations with India in recent years.
Earlier this month, the government designated nine Sikh extremists living abroad as ‘terrorists’ under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act or UAPA 2019. At least two Canada-based Khalistanis with links to Pakistan’s ISI are now on a no-fly list. Charges against Bhagat Singh Brar and Parvkar Singh Dulai by Canada’s Security Intelligence Service include planning attacks in India, siphoning gurdwara funds, weapons procurement and radicalising youth.
The nine include Vancouver-based Hardeep Singh Nijjar and New York-based Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. The noisy Pannun is behind ‘referendum 2020’, but these days he is making increasingly desperate moves writing to Chinese President Xi Jinping to praise his army’s intrusions into Indian territory, and to Russian President Vladimir Putin, to ask for help in the UN Security Council.
The ISI masterminds are clearly at a loss - the referendum is suffering a slow death by pandemic, but they can’t blame iron brother China for spawning the virus. The pandemic prevented Baisakhi parades in Canada this year, which means there were no politicians to flaunt, no floats and posters of Bhindranwale to incite the young. The Indian High Commission is also taking a more pro-active stance against incitement of violence against India on certain ethnic radio stations and TV channels in Canada. It recently lodged a strong protest with the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission against PTN24, a Punjabi channel, for a programme aired on 26 April brimming with vitriol and glorification of Sikh assassins of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
