Canada soft on terror, Punjab leader says
Capt. Amarinder Singh has always made it clear he thinks Canada is soft on alleged Sikh extremists in this country.
The head of India’s Punjab state government once alleged the Liberal cabinet harbours four “Khalistani” advocates of an independent Sikh homeland, publicly snubbed Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and gave Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a list of purported Sikh terrorists living here.
But Singh went even further with his critique in an unexpected statement issued this week, accusing the Canadian government of providing “overt and covert” support to the Khalistan movement, and calling on New Delhi to consider sanctions against Canada if it does not take a tougher stance.
The Punjab chief minister urged India’s national government “to mount global pressure on Canada to put an end to the use of its soil to unleash terror against India, particularly the Sikh community being targeted by Khalistani terrorists.”
“India had, for too long, been soft towards Canada and needed to crack its whip aggressively, even seek UN sanctions if needed, to end the growing threat once and for all, the Chief Minister stressed,” said the news release posted on the Punjab government’s website Monday.
The comments add to ongoing tension between the two countries over the Khalistan issue, and the degree to which Canadian politicians support the movement.
It’s unclear what prompted the latest outburst, although it follows a decision by the federal government in April to remove specific references to Sikh extremism from a contentious Public Safety Canada report on terrorism.
Global Affairs Canada, asked about the statement, was unable to respond by deadline.
The Indian government has also voiced concerns over Canadian politicians’ approach to Sikh nationalism, but the Indian High Commission in Ottawa did not reply to a request for comment.
For Sikhs here, Singh’s verbal attack comes “completely out of left field,” said Balpreet Singh, legal counsel for the World Sikh Organization.
The allegations are unfounded — and some of them are “outlandish” — but they will nonetheless harm Canadian members of the faith, he said.
“What this looks like to us … is foreign interference, a narrative created in India and pushed into Canada about Canadian Sikhs,” said Singh.
Singh suggested the Punjab leader may simply be angry that Canada barred him from coming here in 2016 to campaign among the Indian diaspora, a group considered to have considerable influence and financial clout in Punjab politics.
Accusing another country of giving a safe haven to terrorists could also help distract voters from the state’s struggling economy, he said.
Amarinder Singh, a former Indian army officer, first aired his criticisms of Canada in April 2017, when he insisted the four Sikhs in Trudeau’s cabinet were Khalistanis — a charge denied by all of them — and refused to meet Sajjan when the minister visited Punjab.
Peaceful support for an independent Khalistan in India is strong among leadership of Sikh temples in Canada — with some “gurdwaras” displaying portraits of alleged extremists — and Canadian politicians have for years now reached out to such leaders as they court the powerful Sikh vote.