Indian Government, Particularly The Not Too Bright Congress Leadership Is Giving Free Publicity To Small Group Of Canadian Khalistanis By Always Bringing Up Their “Good Work” Like Holding Parades With Martyrs, Making $10 Signs That Portray India’s Human Rights Violations And In The Process Giving Them Free International Publicity Worth $ Millions!
Harper tells India that he differs with their leadership on the issue of Khalistanis in Canada. “It may be a political position that both the government of Canada and the government of India disagree with,” the Prime Minister said during a visit to the southern Indian city of Bangalore Thursday. But “we can’t interfere with the right of political freedom of expression.”
By R. Paul Dhillon
With News Files
BANGALORE – Visiting Cnadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave a kind of a back-handed slap on the face of India’s Congress leadership and particularly party MP Preneet Kaur, the country’s junior minister of state for external affairs, who had complained about the “revival of anti-India rhetoric in Canada.”
Indian government and particularly the not too bright Indian Congress party leadership has been lobbying Ottawa to crack down on peaceful protests and parades promoting Khalistan and shaming Indian government’s record on human rights and its failures to bring to justice to families of thousands of innocent Sikhs murdered in New Delhi in 1984.
The real intended purpose of this useless lobbying (Canada unlike India cannot silence free speech and dissenting views of its citizens) is to silence the loud Sikh voice from Canada on the human rights violations.
And Harper came out with a firm message to India – we stand with you, like majority of Indo-Canadians-Sikhs when it comes to untied India and terrorism-violence – but if you keep telling us that we need to do more about Sikh separatist activity in Canada, the answer is that we can’t do anything about Sikhs or any other Canadians right to free speech and dissent.
Harper said his government already keeps a sharp lookout for terrorist threats but that merely advocating for a Khalistan homeland in the Punjab is not a crime, at least not in Canada!
He said violence and terrorism can’t be confused with the right of Canadians to hold and promote their political views, reported the Globe and Mail newspaper.
“It may be a political position that both the government of Canada and the government of India disagree with,” the Prime Minister said during a visit to the southern Indian city of Bangalore Thursday.
But “we can’t interfere with the right of political freedom of expression.”
The Prime Minister found himself pressed by the Indian government minister during his six-day trade visit to the south Asian country on what New Delhi calls a revival of “anti-India” voices in Canada. That’s code for Sikh extremists who want to carve a separate homeland out of India.
Speaking near the end of his India visit, Harper first made it clear that Canada unequivocally backs a united India.
“The government of Canada, and I believe the vast majority of Canadian people, including the vast majority of Indo-Canadians have no desire to see the revival of old hostilities in this great country,” the Prime Minister told reporters in the southern city of Bangalore, where he announced Ottawa would open a new consulate.
Harper had been asked what he was doing to tackle Sikh extremism in Canada.
He replied that the Canadian government closely watched “extremist developments – those who may embrace violence or threats of violence or terrorism.”
But he said his government does not consider it a crime to argue or promote a Sikh homeland.
Harper said he believes other political parties in Canada agree with him and declared that he won’t be moved on this matter.
“The government of Canada’s policy positions on these matters are extremely well known,” he told journalists.
“I believe they are shared across the political spectrum –and they’re not going to change,” Harper said.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal advisor to Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), said Harper was right on the mark to tell India that Sikhs are peacefully advocating Sikh’s right to self determination which has been continuously branded by Indian authorities as “revival of terrorism”.
The statement of PM Harper that “his government does not consider it a crime to argue or promote a Sikh homeland” is a clear message to the Government of India that they cannot muzzle the voice of Sikhs. Instead of suppressing the voice of Sikh community by branding them “anti India” and ” “supporters of terrorism”, India should focus on prosecuting the perpetrators of genocidal attacks on Sikhs, something that it has failed to do for the past 28 years,” said Pannun.
About half of Indian immigrants to Canada trace their roots to the Punjab region, Harper’s latest stop on a six-day tour of India. It’s not a place he can afford to skip given the sizeable role that Indo-Canadian voters played in helping the Conservatives win Greater Toronto Area seats.
After landing in the Punjab capital of Chandigarh Wednesday, the Prime Minister flew by helicopter to Anandpur Sahib, a city revered by Sikh adherents, where he visited the Khalsa Heritage Memorial Complex. The recently-opened museum, designed by Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie traces the history of the Sikh religion.
“It has been a wonderful experience. I visited the Golden Temple during my last visit,” he said. Harper was accompanied by his wife Laureen and seven Indo-Canadian MPs, including Tim Uppal, the first turbaned federal minister outside India.
Harper became the first elected head of a state to visit Virasat-e-Khalsa. He has also become the first Prime Minister to visit two of the five Takhts —Amritsar and Sri Anandpur Sahib — of the Sikhs.
