Khushwant Singh Lit Fest: Canada hypocritical, India touchy over Nijjar issue, says Dosanjh

Shimla, October 14

Ujjal Dosanjh, former British Columbia premier, termed Canada as “hypocritical” and India “touchy” at Khushwant Singh Literary Festival while talking about the spat between the two countries over the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent member of the Khalistani movement.

“Canadian president Justin Trudeau has promptly condemned the glorification of violence by Hamas supporters, but he has never condemned similar glorification of violence by Khalistani extremists on Canadian streets,” Dosanjh said.

“The Canadian politicians have never said that they can’t support the dismemberment of a friendly democracy,” said Dosanjh, who migrated to England and then to Canada from a Punjab village in the 1960s.

He said there were just a minuscule number of Sikhs in Canada and across the world who supported the idea of Khalistan. After slamming Canada for its double standards, Dosanjh accused the Indian politicians of being touchy and jingoistic.

“The Indian government could present a formal request to Canada for the extradition of people like Nijjar. And if Canada says it can’t do anything if someone is demanding Khalistan without resorting to violence, it shouldn’t be too touchy about it,” he said. “India could ask Canada, the US and other friendly countries to condemn the movement trying to dismember a friendly country,” he said.

He said there were no angels in this spat. “Prime Minister Trudeau had other options and platforms to raise the issue rather than making a sombre statement in Parliament. He may have had political compulsions in raising it, but political compulsions are there in India as well. PM Narendra Modi is the greatest polariser I have ever seen on the Indian scene. He polarises every second he speaks, and then he polarises by not speaking,” Dosanjh said.

In one of the other sessions of the day, Major General Ian Cardozo (Retd) spoke about various issues of the armed forces, including women in combat roles. “There’s a limit to what men can do, and there is a limit to what women can do,” he said, making his position clear on the issue.

The other speakers on the second day included Dinesh Kumar, Prashant Reddy, Arati Kumar Rao and R Gopalakrishnan.