Harbouring terrorists seems to come naturally to states like Pakistan, built on the backs of spiteful separatists, but why has Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shut off trade with Bharat? While Pakistan has historically been in support of the further fragmentation of Bharat and the Khalistani movement, the recent involvement by the Canadian state indirectly supporting the Khalistani narrative is a concerning development on the global front.

KHALISTAN’S CONTRIBUTIONS

The Khalistani movement, a separatist endeavour seeking the establishment of an independent Sikh state, traces its origins to the 1910s when concerns about Sikh rights in British-controlled Bharat began to surface. After Bharat’s partition in 1947, Punjab witnessed demographic shifts as Sikhs migrated between Bharat and Pakistan, and this period was marked by communal tensions.

By the 1960s and 1970s, some Sikh leaders started demanding greater autonomy for Punjab and recognition of Sikhism as a distinct religion, ultimately evolving their aspirations into the Khalistan cause. Following events outside Bharat, with many migrants in Europe and North America starting their own scattered Khalistani communities, especially after 1971, the idea of an autonomous Khalistan state gained traction abroad.

It was in 1984, following Operation Blue Star when per Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s directions to Bharat’s government for the interest of national security, a military operation was exercised in the Golden Temple complex after many a failed negotiation, aimed at flushing out of the Khalistani militants led by Jarnail Singh Bhinderwale. Widespread murders by followers of Bhinderwale occurred in 1980s Punjab, and the subsequent anti-Sikh riots claimed thousands of lives.

A significant Khalistan sentiment emerged after the temple raid, which a large number of Sikhs perceived as a grave insult to their religion and sensitivities. This marked a notable shift in the sentiments of the Sikh community, and throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Khalistani militant groups engaged in bombings and violence. On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi the community went so far as to assassinate in New Delhi, the serving Prime minister of Bharat, an unarmed defenceless woman, by her Sikh security guards in retaliation for Operation Blue Star.

The blowing up of Air India Flight 182 in 1985, killing 268 Canadian citizens, 27 British citizens and 24 Bhartiya citizens, including the flight crew, and the admission by Inderjit Singh Reyat, a Canadian national and member of the International Sikh Youth Federation who pleaded guilty in 2003 to manslaughter. This too doesn’t seem to faze the Canadian govt, which continues to sabotage their diplomatic relations with Bharat over the death of the Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an incident that Bharat had nothing to do with, but has their trade with Canada suspended over in 2023.

By the mid-1990s, Bhartiya security forces had largely quelled the militancy, though some remnants persisted. However, in 2020-21, the innovative farm bills that cracked down on disappearing profits and attempted to eliminate the need for middlemen were received as a direct attack on Punjab and Haryana, reviving the anti-government and anti-Bharat sentiments in the region, along with mass protests and riots.

CANADA AND KHALISTAN

Controversy surrounds Canada’s response to the Khalistan movement. After initially refusing to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2017 and calling him a “Khalistani sympathizer,” Amarinder Singh eventually met with Trudeau in February 2018. Trudeau assured Singh that Canada wouldn’t support the revival of the separatist movement. Some political leaders, like Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Badal, downplayed the Khalistan issue. In 2020, a report by Canadian ex-journalist Terry Milewski criticized the Khalistan movement, suggesting it was driven by the Pakistani government and posed a threat to Canadian interests.

In September 2023, during an address to the Canadian parliament, Justin Trudeau accused Bharat of involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Khalistan separatist advocate who was murdered in Surrey, British Columbia. Seeing the double standards and the inability to make up their minds, I support the former chief minister of Punjab, Amrinder Singh’s analysis of this event as Trudeau walking into a trap set up by the players of his vote bank politics.

Canada has the third largest Punjabi population, and second largest Sikh Punjabi population in the world, comprising nearly 10 lakh Sikhs registered as Canadian citizens, and many more who aren’t yet citizens. Blaming a powerful country like Bharat as a whole for the suspected murder of a terrorist who comes from an extremist faction of violence, is not only now resulting in the cut-off of trade ties between the countries but could devolve in strained diplomatic relations too.

Amrinder Singh asserted that it was an indisputable truth that the Canadian government, led by Prime Minister Trudeau, had allowed anti-Bharat elements to operate freely within their borders. Bhartiya diplomatic missions had been subjected to attacks, and Bhartiya diplomats had been subjected to intimidation, with no remedial measures taken by the Canadian authorities. The Canadian government has taken no steps to apprehend those responsible for the attacks on Bhartiya missions.

Furthermore, Mr. Trudeau was making such allegations in an attempt to divert attention away from his inability to address anti-Bharat activities within Canada. Nijjar, aged 45, was wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with four cases. He had been officially designated as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in July 2020, as per a notification from the Ministry of Home Affairs. He was shot dead on June 18, outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver with a significant Sikh population, and no evidence has been found of Bharat’s involvement in the matter.

The recent trends of the Canadian government leave little difference between Pakistan’s harbouring of terrorists and Canada’s dismissal of blatant truths and brushing under the rug its state affairs just to pander to the Canadian-Sikh vote bank.