New Delhi: A float depicting the assassination of former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was found outside the Indian consulate in Vancouver Thursday.
The float was brought to the consulate by Sikh separatists as part of a protest against the 40th anniversary of Operation Bluestar which removed Sikh militants from the Golden Temple.
It featured an effigy of Indira Gandhi riddled with bullets along with two dummies of Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, the killers of the late Indian prime minister. The effigies of the two assailants had guns pointed at Gandhi.
Protests were also held outside the Indian consulate in Toronto, however, according to media reports, there were no floats found in those demonstrations. In June 2023, a tableau in a parade in Brampton, Canada, organised by separatist elements, glorified the assassination of the former prime minister, sparking a diplomatic row between New Delhi and Ottawa.
At the time, the Canadian High Commissioner to India Cameron MacKay, had condemned the float at the Brampton parade. “I am appalled by reports of an event in Canada that celebrated the assassination of late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. There is no place in Canada for hate or for the glorification of violence. I categorically condemn these activities,” MacKay wrote on social media platform X on 8 June last year.
ThePrint reached the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for a statement. A response is awaited.
Canadian national leaders including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Leader of the Official Opposition Pierre Poilievre and Jagmeet Singh, leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), spoke at the Khalsa Day celebrations held in Toronto in April this year amid pro-separatist chants.
The event led to the summoning of the Canadian deputy high commissioner to India and the lodging of an official protest by the MEA.
In April 2023, a similar tableau glorifying the killing of Indira Gandhi was driven across the town of Sacramento, California in the US, while a month earlier, the Indian High Commission in London had been attacked by Sikh separatists.
Such protests have received state support in Canada, with Patrick Brown, the Mayor of Brampton for example, speaking at a similar ‘Sikh Martyrdom Day’ parade held in June 2022.
The Indian Army in June 1984 stormed the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar to remove the pro-Khalistani extremists, including their leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who had occupied one of the holiest sites of Sikhism.
Four months later, on 31 October, Gandhi was shot dead outside her residence by her two bodyguards, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh. Beant Singh was immediately killed by other guards, while Satwant Singh was tried, sentenced and hanged along with another accomplice Kehar Singh. The assassination of Indira Gandhi led to anti-Sikh riots in New Delhi and in other places across the country, killing many.
Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, the son of Beant Singh, earlier this week won from the Punjab Lok Sabha seat of Faridkot as an Independent. He defeated his closest rival Karamjit Singh Anmol from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) by 70,053 votes.
Jailed separatist Amritpal Singh was also elected as an Independent representing the Khadoor Sahib constituency in Punjab, after defeating his nearest rival Kulbir Singh Zira from the Congress by 1,97,120 votes.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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