LAST month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that Indian government agents stationed in Canada had a hand in the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. He made this accusation in the temple of Canadian democracy, the House of Commons. His government expelled a diplomat in the Indian High Commission and by doing so suggested the involvement of this senior officer. We, in return, expelled an officer of an equivalent rank from the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi. Such ‘tit for tat’ action is commonly resorted to when bilateral relations get strained.

The expelled Indian diplomat had monitored a drive against drug smugglers on the India-Pakistan border. He had been keeping an eye on Khalistani elements among the diaspora in Canada. In 1985, Sikh extremists had blown up an Air India flight, killing all 329 people on board. Of those killed, 268 were Canadian citizens. Yet, the investigation conducted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) did not reach the level expected of any nation where such a ghastly crime had been planned and executed. The very fact that a bomb could be so easily transported though the security cordon and then deposited inside an aircraft spoke poorly of the quality of the security checks and the commitment of the personnel responsible for preventing lapses.

After that incident, one would have expected a heightened level of concern from the Canadian authorities about the activities of Khalistani extremists in their country. That did not seem to have happened. Some Canadian nationals of Indian (Punjabi) descent seem keen on Khalistan being carved out of India despite wishes to the contrary of the great mass of their relatives and co-religionists back home.

It is even more surprising that the Canadian Government does not warn such elements about not using the soil of their adopted nation to tilt at windmills in the country of their birth or ancestry. A friendly country should not shut its eyes when its citizens indulge in hostile activities against another friendly nation because of its own political compulsions.

Trudeau requires the support of the New Democratic Party (NDP) to stay in power. His own Liberal Party does not have the numbers needed to govern. The Sikhs, who constitute 2 per cent of the Canadian population, have formed the NDP, which presently has 25 seats in the Canadian Parliament.

Around 35 years ago, when I headed the Punjab Police, a delegation of MPs from Canada had visited Amritsar. These MPs had a large proportion of Sikhs in their constituencies. They had been told that the state police were busy killing young Sikhs, with the result that Sikh youths had stopped visiting the Golden Temple. Of course, the MPs had been misinformed.

When the MPs entered the Golden Temple, they found that most of those inside the premises were Sikh boys who had taken to arms after being misguided and brainwashed. The MPs wanted to know why their voters back in Canada had misinformed them. I asked my security officer, Avinder Singh Brar, a young IPS officer, to answer the question.

Avinder’s explanation was that the Sikhs in Canada were living lives of comfort as compared to their relatives in Punjab. It was the guilt complex that prompted them to deride the government of Punjab. Sikhs were to be found in most cities of India and they were prospering because of their capacity for hard work.

This explanation struck a chord with the visitors. They mentioned that the initial Sikh migration to their country was recorded in colonial times when Sikhs were welcomed as loggers in Vancouver. They now formed a sizeable proportion of the population of that city. Foreigners visiting Vancouver encounter them at the immigration desks.

Our Canadian friends must surely be aware that Punjab supplies a large proportion of the foodgrains that India consumes. It also provides some of our bravest soldiers and defence officers. One Sikh has been the President of India and another the Prime Minister. Sikhs have also served as the chiefs of the Army and the Air Force. Accounting for around 2 per cent of the country’s population, they have done themselves and India proud.

Canadian Sikhs who support the demand for Khalistan are substantially more numerous as a percentage than their brethren back home. Yet, even in Canada, the numbers fall short of a majority. In India, the supporters of Khalistan are almost non-existent; the overt activities of so-called Khalistanis are more of an irritant. The Jats, who form the bulk of the state’s farming community, have lost any interest they may have had in the movement during the times of Bhindranwale and the decade following his death.

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar very rightly pointed out to the Canadian Government that it did not behove a friendly democracy to condone separatist activities and activists on Canadian soil. Khalistan is proposed to be carved out of Indian territory. Why should Canada give free rein to Canadian Sikhs who want India to concede such a preposterous demand?

Where I do not agree with the minister is when he deprecates ‘doublespeak’ on the part of our Canadian friends. That is so because we, too, can be accused of ‘doublespeak’ — the ruling party in our polity put up Pragya Thakur as its candidate for Bhopal’s Lok Sabha seat when she was facing a trial in the Malegaon mosque blast case. Remember also that RAW was alleged to have helped train the LTTE, which repaid its benefactor by assassinating former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi!

So, who killed Nijjar? This known terrorist was wanted in Punjab for crimes committed by him before he escaped to Canada. Despite a red-letter notice by Interpol, Canada granted him Canadian citizenship, probably due to political pressure. He allegedly ousted the head of the gurdwara committee in Surrey (Vancouver) and got himself installed.

Nijjar, who had once posed for a photograph with automatic weapons, could have fallen prey to internecine gang wars within the community, for all we know.