Trudeau in India
Trudeau’s recent visit to India has been embroiled in controversy. Relations between India and Canada have been strained for the past few years, and the visit was supposed to foster a strong economic and cultural partnership between the two countries. Instead, these efforts were overshadowed by the invitation of a former Sikh separatist convicted of attempting to kill an Indian Cabinet Minister in 1986 to a reception with Trudeau. Last April, the Chief Minister of Punjab refused to meet with the Canadian defense minister when he visited India and labelled him along with three other members of the Trudeau cabinet “Khalistani sympathizers.” [1] So what is the Khalistan movement and why is it straining the relationship between India and Canada?
Sikhs are a minority in India and have been persecuted for decades. The partition of British India in 1947 was a largely religious division, with Muslims migrating to create the nation of Pakistan while Hindus migrated to create the nation of India. The partition also saw conflict between Sikhs and Muslims in Punjab, resulting in a large migration of Sikhs and Hindus from West Punjab in Pakistan to East Punjab in India. Following the partition, the Sikh community in Indian Punjab started advocating for a separate Sikh state as they had been uprooted from their traditional land. They also felt alienated in a largely Hindu country. On 1 November 1966, the State of Punjab came into existence and a large majority of the Hindu population separated to form the State of Haryana.
By the early 1980s, some Sikhs were calling for more than a separate provincial statehood. They demanded an autonomous Sikh Khalistan or “Land of the Pure”. At the time, extremists such as Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale had the support of many Sikh youth. Armed with automatic weapons, they launched a violent movement for Khalistan that occupied the Golden Temple in Amritsar, one of the most revered spiritual sites of Sikhism. When the elections came in January of 1985, the Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi did not want the predominantly Hindu population to view her as powerless against Sikh extremism. Thus, Gandhi gave permission for the Indian Army to retake the Golden Temple in Operation Bluestar. On 1 June 1984, tanks and troops moved to the temple where a battle was fought until Bhindranwale and his militants were killed. The battle also resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians who were caught in the crossfire. In retaliation, Gandhi was killed by her two Sikh bodyguards in October of 1984. Massive riots ensued in the next few days, during which a massacre was launched against Sikhs in India. Independent sources estimate the number of deaths at about eight thousand. Several members of the Indian Congress were also accused of inciting Hindu mobs to violence. This was the worst religious riot since the partition and created an immense division between the Sikhs and Hindus in India.
In Canada, following the anti-Sikh riots in India, thousands of Sikh protesters took to the streets of major cities such as Vancouver, where protesters called for revenge against Gandhi’s government. Among those advocating militancy were the two leaders of the Babbar Khalsa, the founder Talwinder Singh Parmar and his lieutenant Ajaib Singh Bagri. They were the masterminds behind the bombing of Air India Flight 182 that killed all three hundred and twenty-nine people on board, most of whom were Canadian citizens of Indian origin. The bombing was in retaliation against the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Two baggage handlers were also killed at Tokyo’s Narita airport due to a bomb in a bag. The incident is, to this day, Canada’s deadliest terrorist attack.
The bombing of Air India Flight 182 still remains a controversial issue in Canadian politics. Recently, the leader of the NDP, Jagmeet Singh, fell into hot water after denouncing only the bombing, but not Parmar himself, since for many Sikhs, Talwinder Singh Parmar is a martyr rather than a terrorist. However, Singh is not new to the issue of Sikh separatism. While an MPP in the Ontario legislature, Singh advocated for the government of Ontario to recognize the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 as a genocide. For his activism, the Indian government banned Singh from entry into India and accused Singh of advocating for a separate Sikh state in India, something that he has neither denounced nor endorsed. The events of 1984 were finally recognized as a genocide in April of 2017 after a motion was brought forward by the Liberal MPP Harinder Malhi. The Indian government tried to discredit the motion and labelled it as “misguided” [2].
The motion that recognized the anti-Sikh riots as a genocide has strained the relationship between India and Canada. Shortly after the motion was passed, Chief Minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh refused to meet with defense minister Harjit Sajjan, accusing him along with three other members of Trudeau’s cabinet of being “Khalistani sympathizers”. Sajjan, in an effort to downplay the rising tensions, commented that the Ontario Liberal Party is separate from the Liberal Party of Canada, but the issue once again came up during Trudeau’s visit to India. Trudeau, in an effort to mend relations between India and Canada, made it very clear to Amarinder Singh that he believes in a “united” India. The meeting between Trudeau and Amarinder Singh ended on a high note as he also met with Harjit Sajjan. However, the trip was thrown into chaos when a former Sikh extremist, Jaspal Atwal, was invited to a reception with Trudeau. A former member of the International Sikh Youth Foundation, a group banned in Canada in 2003, he was one of four men that shot and wounded Indian Cabinet Minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu on Vancouver Island in 1986. He was also charged with a 1985 attack on former BC premier Ujjal Dosanjh, but was later acquitted. The Indian media ridiculed Trudeau on his efforts to advocate for a united India while a Sikh extremist was present at his reception. One reporter even went as far as asking Trudeau why he invited a “Khalistani terrorist” to his reception.
While it is understandable for the Indian government to be frustrated with Trudeau, especially given the tensions between Sikhs and Hindus in India, the Canadian government should not give in to the Indian government’s attempts to discredit the Khalistan movement. Sikhs who support the Khalistan movement should not be labelled as “extremists” as every person has a right for self determination, a right supported by the United Nations. Sikh communities around the world and in India should have every right to question the Indian government about the events of 1984, in hopes of reconciliation. Canada must take a clear stand and ensure that there is a fine line between extremism and the the right to free speech that every Canadian has. And the Indian government, for its part, must take proper steps in ensuring the events of 1984 do not occur again.
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