Sikh groups plan protests at Modi’s Canada events
Wednesday, 15/04/2015
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OTTAWA: Canada could prove the most challenging foreign visit yet for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as Sikh activist groups plan protests at the public events he is likely to attend.
For maximum visibility, they will focus on his community reception and visit to the Kanishka Memorial in Toronto, or visits to a gurdwara and temple in Vancouver. This has also resulted in possibly the tightest security for a foreign dignitary since Toronto hosted the G-20 summit in 2010. The choice of the two Vancouver venues by the schedulers is indicative of a flagging in the strength of pro-Khalistan elements there. Modi is to visit the Ross Street gurdwara run by Khalsa Diwan Society in the British Columbian seaport city on Thursday. He will also go to Laxminarayan Mandir in the suburb of Surrey for a joint event of the Hindu Sikh Forum of Canada and Vedic Hindu Cultural Society (VHCS).
Sikh groups have announced protests in both Vancouver and Toronto when Modi visits the Kanishka Memorial, and outside the downtown arena for the community reception.
As sympathy and support for the Khalistan movement ebbs in Canada, Sikh groups are raising other issues during this highprofile visit. Sikhs for Justice has filed a complaint against Modi with Canadian attorney general Peter McKay “requesting criminal proceedings” for “offences of torture and genocide under Canadian law”. It refers to the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Former British Columbia premier Ujjal Dosanjh, only Indo-Canadian to have held such a position in Canada, said: “Khalistan is never going to die in North America. It’s more of a nuisance, an unnecessary distraction. It’s not a problem for India, but a problem for Canada. But it’s waning and the groups want to keep it alive (through such protests).”
