Which Singh is real?

Re: Jagmeet Singh has a lot more explaining to do — March 19

The Record’s editorial was correct, federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh “has a lot more explaining to do.” In 2016, as the editorial stated, Singh participated in a gathering in Britain, where the co-founder of the British National Sikh Youth Federation extolled “political violence” as a “legitimate form of resistance” for creating an independent Sikh homeland in India.

At that time, Singh was not a radical university student, but a provincial NDP member at Queen’s Park.

Also, a year earlier in California, Singh attended a commemoration of the Sikh deaths during the Golden Temple invasion in the 1980s. At that California rally both “Sikh separatism” and “political violence” were apparently celebrated.

Singh seemingly never publicly rejected and condemned these 2015 and 2016 ethnic appeals for political violence. Only in March 2018 did Singh reject all forms of violence, after the final report of the 1985 bombing of the Air India flight costing 329 lives was released.

Was it the real Jagmeet Singh in 2015, in 2016 or in 2018? Or, like many Fenians in early Canada, does he suffer from a split ethnic identity?

Mr. Singh should explain. Nobody needs another prime minister souring relations with India. Especially when we do not know where Singh stands on a united India, which is so essential for Canadian trade.

Alan J. Nanders

Kitchener