Ottawa: Amid a series of allegations, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has cleared his stance on the issue of "Khalistan". At the Foreign Interference Commission, Trudeau said that his position is clear and that is 'One India'. He said that there are a number of people in Canada who advocate otherwise but it does not make it Canadian policy.
"My position and Canada's position has always been to defend the territorial integrity of India. 'One India' is the official Canadian policy, and the fact that there are a number of people in Canada who advocate otherwise does not make it Canadian policy, but also does not make it something that is illegal in Canada," Trudeau told the commission on Wednesday.
"We don't want to be in this situation of picking a fight with a significant trading partner with whom we have deep people-to-people ties and a long history and our fellow democracies," added Trudeau whose "baseless" statements have damaged India-Canada relations.
India believes that Canada doesn’t take seriously violence or terrorism: Trudeau
India believes that Canada doesn’t take seriously violence or terrorism or incitement to hatred seriously, Trudeau said on Wednesday as he cited foundational responsibility for the Canadian government for not taking actions against those espousing violence and terrorism against a third country.
Testifying before the public inquiry into foreign interference in federal electoral processes and democratic institutions, Trudeau said the Canadian government is seeking India’s help to find out if the alleged interference and violence were done either by a rogue element or directed by someone higher up in the government. Trudeau had no definite answer when asked if the alleged interference was a rogue element or authorized by the responsible members of the Government of India.
“I think that is an extremely important question and that is a question that actually we have been repeatedly asking the government of India to assist us on and to get to the bottom of the question of whether it is or could be rogue elements within the government or whether it was a more systemic, systematic endeavour for the government of India is exactly the kind of thing that for investigators here on the ground in Canada, it is somewhat removed from being able to uncover the internal machinations of the Indian government of who went wrong or who did this or who did that,” Trudeau said.
“That's why from the very beginning we have been asking for India, the Indian government to take these allegations seriously and proceed with their own investigations and work with us on figuring out exactly how these egregious violations of Canadian sovereignty actually happened,” he said. “I'd actually say there seemed to be two goals in this. One is yes to make Canadians particularly South Asian Canadians feel less safe here in their own country. But, secondly is actually to help prove a point that the Indian government has been trying to make about Canada for quite some time, that we are a country that doesn't take seriously violence or terrorism or incitements to hatred, which is entirely false, but failing an ability to point out how Canada has been supposedly failing to prevent violence,” Trudeau told the public inquiry.
“It seems like folks within the Indian government have decided to create violence and unlawfulness in Canada as a way of demonstrating the point that they are trying to make that there is violence and unlawfulness in Canada and I think that is exceptionally egregious as an approach to as a neighbour, a sovereign democracy,” he said.
Canada is not looking to provoke or create a fight with India: Trudeau
Responding to a question, Trudeau said Canada is not looking to provoke or create a fight with India. “The Indian government made a horrific mistake in thinking that they could interfere as aggressively as they did in the safety and sovereignty of Canada, and we need to respond in order to ensure Canada's safety. What other steps we will take will be determined in due course, but every step of the way our single overarching priority is ensuring that we are keeping all Canadians safe,” he said.
When asked if Canada will suspend its 2018 intelligence-sharing agreement with India, Trudeau said Canada's policy is around one India. “We believe in the territorial integrity and the sovereignty of India.
We respect that. We certainly expect India to respect the sovereignty of Canada, which in this case they have not,” he said. “It is also extremely important that people who come to this country from every corner of the world understand that they are free to hold the political beliefs that they choose to when you're in Canada,” he said.
India-Canada tensions
Tensions between India and Canada escalated after Trudeau alleged that there were "credible allegations" linking Indian government agents to the June murder in Canada of a Sikh separatist leader campaigning for the creation of an independent Sikh homeland called "Khalistan".
What is Khalistani movement?
It wants an independent Sikh state carved out of India and dates back to India and Pakistan's independence in 1947 when the idea was pushed forward in negotiations preceding the partition of the Punjab region between the two new countries.
The Sikh religion was founded in Punjab in the late 15th century and currently has about 25 million followers worldwide. Sikhs form a majority of Punjab's population but are a minority in India, comprising 2 per cent of its population of 1.4 billion.
Sikh separatists demand that their homeland Khalistan, meaning "the land of the pure", be created out of Punjab. The demand has resurfaced many times, most prominently during a violent insurgency in the 1970s and 1980s which paralysed Punjab for over a decade.
What is India's stand on the Khalistani movement?
The Khalistan movement is considered a security threat by India. The bloodiest episode in the conflict between the government and Sikh separatists occurred in 1984. Then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent the military into the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for Sikhs, to evict armed separatist leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his supporters, which infuriated Sikhs around the world.
A few months later, Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards at her home in New Delhi. The army launched operations in 1986 and 1988 to flush out Sikh militants from Punjab.
Sikh militants were also blamed for the 1985 bombing of an Air India Boeing 747 flying from Canada to India in which all 329 people on board were killed off the Irish coast. The insurgency killed tens of thousands of people and Punjab still bears the scars of that violence.
(With inputs from agencies)
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