When Hardeep Singh Nijjar arrived in Canada in 1997 at the age of 20 and with a fake passport (according to Canadian Immigration), he owned a plumbing business and ran a gurdwara, a Sikh temple, in Vancouver. It was in this city that she became an activist in defense of Khalistan, an independent state desired by some followers of this religion, born in the 15th century in Punjab. Accused of terrorism by Indian authorities – allegations he denied – Nijjar was shot dead in June by two hooded men outside the temple he led.
It was in this crime that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has now accused the Indian government of being involved, claiming to have “credible information” to support his words. “Any involvement of a foreign government in the murder of a Canadian on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Trudeau said in the House of Representatives.
The head of the Canadian government also explained that during the G20 summit, held in India on September 9 and 10, he demanded an explanation from his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi. “In the strongest possible terms, I recommend that the Government of India work with Canada to get to the bottom of this matter,” he assured.
As a result of this investigation, the head of Indian intelligence in Canada was deported. And Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said: “If true, this would be a major violation of our sovereignty and the most fundamental rule of how countries treat each other. As a result, we have expelled a top Indian diplomat.”
New Delhi’s response was swift. Indian authorities viewed Ottawa’s accusations as “absurd” and retaliated with the summons and subsequent expulsion of the Canadian high commissioner to the country. New Delhi’s decision reflects “growing concerns over Canadian diplomats’ interference in domestic affairs and their involvement in anti-India activities,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a note.
Tension between India and Canada has increased since Najjir’s killing, with Ottawa pointing the finger at New Delhi and not hiding its dissatisfaction over the Canadian government’s handling of Sikh separatists. For Jocelyn Coulon, a former adviser to Trudeau and now an independent researcher, the Canadian prime minister’s accusations have “the effect of a bomb”, putting India “into the group of countries that murder political opponents abroad”.
During his trip to India early this month for the G20 summit, Trudeau met privately with Modi, a meeting in which he discussed Najjir’s death, but in which the Indian prime minister also took the opportunity to express his “concerns about anti- discrimination”. -Indian activities of some extremist elements in Canada,” said a statement from the New Delhi government, quoted by AFP.
But which separatist group is Najjir accused of joining?
Today, Sikhs represent less than 2% of India’s 1,400 million people, but in India’s Punjab, followers of this religion make up 60% of the population. At the time of the Partition of British India in 1947, the vast majority of Sikhs chose to side with an independent multi-faith India, rather than remain in Pakistan, the Muslim homeland, to avoid religious persecution.
Since that time, a small group of Sikhs have championed the creation of Khalistan, a ‘Land of the Pure’ that would function as an independent state ruled by followers of this religion. An idea that gained support in the following decades as Punjab became one of the richest states in India. But the independence movement only took a violent turn in the 1980s, with the rise of fundamentalist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Charismatically, Bhindranwale and his followers launched a campaign of murdering political opponents and Hindu citizens. In 1984, they began stockpiling weapons and barricading themselves in the Golden Temple, the holiest site for Sikhs, in Amritsar.
The protest ended when the Indian army, on the orders of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, daughter of the father of Indian independence, Jawaharlal Nehru, attacked the temple, killing Bhindranwale, his deputies and hundreds of civilians and causing damage to the building. Operation Blue Star caused a wave of outrage among Sikhs around the world. And Indira herself would eventually be murdered by two of her Sikh bodyguards. A brutal repression followed, leading to many more deaths. While the separatists were accused of blowing up an Air India Boeing flying between Montreal, Canada, and New Delhi in June 1985, killing the 329 people on board.
But the uprising was eventually brought under control and India even had a Sikh prime minister, Manmohan Singh, who was in power between 2004 and 2014, succeeded by Modi.
But while the separatist movement in India has been virtually silent, its strongest voices are among the diaspora, especially in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. The latter has the largest Sikh community outside India: more than 770 thousand people. This crisis with Ottawa shows that despite everything, Sikh separatism is still a concern for New Delhi, which has complained to some countries about the activities of extremists.
Source: DN
