A new national advocacy group is uniting the voices of Sikhs across the country to fight against Indian interference in Canada as details of a state-led campaign emerge.
Top Canadian security and intelligence officials say members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inner circle may have ordered intelligence gathering on Sikh separatists in Canada and authorized attacks on them by transnational gangs. are.
On Tuesday, Deputy Foreign Minister David Morrison confirmed a report in which Canada alleges that India’s Home Minister Amit Shah, who is widely seen as Prime Minister Modi’s second-in-command, orchestrated the violent operation. Mr Morrison did not name Mr Shah, but acknowledged providing information to the Washington Post, which first reported the relationship.
“A journalist called me and asked if it was that person, and I confirmed it was that person,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in response to a question from Conservative public safety critic Raquel Dancho. .
call to action
The ties to Mr. Modi’s inner circle are fueling the creation of a new political advocacy group, the Sikh Federation of Canada.
The new umbrella organization is “united and focused” and brings together members of Sikh temples, student organizations and other sovereignty activist groups, said Moninder Singh, a spokesperson for the federation. It is said that there is.
“We’re going to secure more authority when it comes to combating misinformation and disinformation from countries like India,” Singh said in an interview with CTV National News.
“We push back against foreign interference that unfortunately leads to cross-border repression and, in our case here, assassination in places of worship,” he asserted.
Singh said the federation has four calls to action:
- It has called on the Canadian government to suspend security and intelligence agreements with India over concerns that the Modi government is misusing information to target dissent.
- Public inquiry into the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and other acts of violence linked to the Indian government
- A promise to prosecute all “conspirators and perpetrators of criminal activities” related to India.
- Funding and resources for Sikh community organizations to counter disinformation in India
Singh said the new federation will put pressure on “Canada’s elected officials to do the right thing, bow to India in tough times and not put communities at risk on Canadian soil.” He said he was planning to apply.
Diplomatic tensions rise as threats grow
Tensions between Canada and India have been high since the murder of Sikh Canadian activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, in June 2023. Three months after Nijjar was shot and killed outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood in the House of Commons and said: It said there were credible suspicions that there was a potential link between Indian government agents and Nijjar’s murder.
Since Nijjar’s murder, more acts of violence and increased danger to Sikh Canadians have been revealed.
On October 14, RCMP announced that Modi government officials, through suspected Indian gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, were threatening pro-Khalistani activists in Canada through extortion, arson, and drive-by shootings.
Mounties said they had a “duty to warn” more than a dozen members of the South Asian community that their lives were in “imminent” danger.
On the same day, Canada declared the Indian High Commissioner persona non grata and expelled Sanjay Kumar Verma and five other Indian diplomats based in Ottawa.
New Delhi responded with similar measures, expelling six Canadian diplomats.
Since Nijjar’s death, national security adviser Nathalie Drouin said diplomats and top security officials had tried to hold at least six meetings abroad to seek cooperation from Indian officials. The final round of talks took place in Singapore ahead of the Thanksgiving long weekend, when Mr Drouin and Mr Morrison met with their Indian counterparts.
Drouin said Canada presented evidence. But instead of agreeing to cooperate in holding the alleged perpetrators to account, Drouin said, “Canada has not presented any evidence and we have addressed their concerns about violent extremism in Khalistan.” “They spread a false story that they were ignoring it.”
