Toronto: Having paid little heed to India’s appeals to reign in the activities of Khalistani separatists on its soil, Canada came to realise what these people are capable of when they brazenly targeted their adopted country’s foreign affairs minister Anita Anand on Friday.
Secessionist group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) staged protests outside Indian missions in Canada on Friday. Among the posters on display during the protest outside India’s Consulate was one showing Anand and late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. This was juxtaposed to a tableau showing Indira’s assassination. Another poster depicted Anand’s meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during her visit to India earlier this month.
Anand was carrying out Canadian prime minister Mark Carney’s policy of engaging with India as part of an overall attempt to diversify from the trade dependence on the United States. Both India and Canada highlighted the importance of bilateral ties during her visit to New Delhi.
The display, on the 41st anniversary of Indira’s assassination, showed her being riddled with bullets fired by her bodyguards-turned-assassins Beant Singh and Satwant Singh. The two men were depicted with guns pointed towards a morphed image of Indira and Anand.
Her depiction in that manner by the SFJ has been slammed by Canadian cabinet ministers.
“A recent protest in Toronto showed two men shooting at the image of a federal minister – which is absolutely vile and unacceptable,” Canada’s minister of public safety Gary Anandasangaree posted.
“Canada condemns all threats to public officials, full stop. Those responsible for inciting such hate and violence must be found and held accountable,” he added.
Minister of international trade Maninder Sidhu echoed that sentiment and said: “I strongly condemn the actions and rhetoric that promoted violence during the demonstration in Toronto. It is unacceptable and entirely contrary to the values of respect, peace and unity that define our country. Canadians have the right to peacefully express their views, but that right can never be used to justify hate, intimidation or harm.”
“Targeting a public official with threats or violence undermines our democracy,” secretary of state for international development Randeep Sarai said.
The SFJ has scheduled the next phase of its so-called Khalistan Referendum in the Canadian capital later this month.
In June this year, pro-Khalistan figure Moninder Singh, a spokesperson for the Sikh Federation of Canada and the British Columbia Gurdwaras Council, told a gathering in a speech that: “Even if we don’t take part in the armed struggle, it’s not our right to reject it. If there is a struggle that emerges organically within the youth of Punjab, we should not let them down due to our weakness.”
Singh was speaking at a memorial function in mid-June to mark the two-year death anniversary for Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the pro-Khalistan figure, who was killed in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18, 2023. The venue was the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey which Nijjar led till his death.