A tableau in Brampton, Canada Glorifying the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, has predictably caused outrage across politics in India. The tableau was part of an annual parade by Canadian Sikh separatist or “Khalistani” groups to mark their protest against Operation Bluestar in 1984. An accompanying poster termed the killing an act of “revenge”. Political leaders in India have called on Canada to apologize and acknowledge the dangers of the rise of anti-India separatist and extremist forces. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said This incident was part of a broader pattern, indicating that these forces pose a real challenge not only to Indo-Canadian relations, but to Canada itself. He suggested that the failure to act against these groups was due to a desire to cater to the Canadian “vote-bank”, which is a much wider community of approximately 800,000 Sikhs. The culture of validating violence as an acceptable form of protest should also concern Canada’s leadership, given past incidents such as the 1985 Air India bombing, he said. As India protests against incidents of vandalism and anti-India and anti-Modi graffiti at temples and community centers there, as well as comments by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticizing the treatment of Punjab farmers by the Narendra Modi government Who were opposing the 2020 Agriculture Bill. , As a result, India suspended high-level engagements and virtually shut down communications between New Delhi and Ottawa for several months before restoring them.
The latest provocation could lead to another such spiral, and both governments need to resolve the issues diplomatically if they want to avoid a further deterioration in bilateral relations. While the Canadian government is within its rights to protect free speech and expression in its country, it should understand India’s concern that a tableau glorifying the assassination of a prime minister constitutes inciting hate speech, and can promote. In the meantime, instead of demanding an end to protests that are legal, or issuing démarches at every act of vandalism, it would be more productive if New Delhi was able to cooperate in sharing evidence of extremist activity and terrorist acts. Ho and such groups are conspiring. Given that Khalistani protests have been witnessed in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and parts of Europe, the Modi government must now draw up a comprehensive diplomatic strategy to ensure a more effective way of dealing with the problem, based on Can also be discussed. With the leaders of all these countries who are expected to visit India in September for the G-20 summit.