Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, in a hard-hitting statement on Monday, slammed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the current India-Canada diplomatic row, while accusing him of turning a blind eye towards the issue of Sikh extremism and also patronising individuals having extremist tendencies.

Here is the full statement posted on X by the BJP leader.

“It is not often that countries, friends for decades, should end up as have Canada and India today. The assassination of a person of extreme separatist views Hardeep Singh Nijjar, led to the prime minister of Canada Justin Trudeau pointing his finger, in a parliamentary statement, towards India as being responsible for this act. He later stated that he didn’t have concrete evidence, but that fingers pointed in that direction. This itself is a violation of the sanctity of parliament where a Prime Ministerial statement is taken as “the truth and nothing but the truth”.

Are electoral compulsions more important than decades old relationships, national commitments and age old Parliamentary traditions? For Trudeau, it seems not. Some years ago when I was Chief Minister of Punjab, I was aware of Canada’s approach to Sikh extremism being prevalent in that country, which was fast growing to which Trudeau not only turned a blind eye, but also patronized such people to enhance his political base. He sent his defense minister a Sikh, to Punjab, I refused to meet him, as he himself was an active member of the World Sikh Organization, at that time the parent body of the Khalistani movement, which was then presided over by none other than his father. Some months later, Trudeau visited Punjab and refused to meet me until the then External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj told him that if he did not meet the Chief Minister, he could not visit the State.

We met in Amritsar, He was accompanied by his Defence Minister Sajjan, I presume an attempt to get one up on me! I told him in no uncertain terms of Punjab’s problems with Canada. It had become a haven of the Khalistani separatist movement, which no Punjabi wanted, and also of gun running, drugs and gangsters. I handed him a list of over twenty leading individuals who were actively involved in this movement, some were also members of his cabinet, one of whom was sitting beside him. I was promised that he would look into these grievances.

On the contrary, since our meeting these nefarious activities have grown. The Kanishka bombing is now out of his mind and so are the other acts that continue to destabilize Punjab. Our economy continues to stagnate as Industry always enters when it visualizes peace and stability. On the contrary, today, gangsters are prevalent, weapons are freely used. Agriculture is becoming non profitable regardless of the increase in the States overall production, as input prices of fertilizers, oil and other essentials are becoming prohibitive, the minimum support price increases marginally on an annual basis.

The reason is obvious! The purchase by the FCI is meant for food security, and an affordable price that the under-privileged of the country can afford. If the MSP goes up so does the consumer price to the millions of our poor. While the Punjab farmer who sweats his guts out to produce what India needs, wants more for his crop, so does the Union Government wants to rationalize what it must pay. India would need substantial financial resources to guarantee an MSP. Can it afford it? What then is the option – Industrialisation for one, and the right environment in Punjab to draw in industry. Some countries that permit a separatist movement to exist in their jurisdiction are keeping such movements in check, but in the case of Canada, a government that patronizes a terrorist or a separatist movement for political gain, is irresponsible and to a point criminal.

There is a strong perception that Trudeau is using Punjabis to sustain his government, without realizing the decline in his affinity with them in his own country and even in India. Fortunately Trudeau’s Canada is the singular example as of date. To turn the spotlight away from himself, his severing of diplomatic ties by initially accusing our security agencies of engineering Nijjar’s assassination, then naming officers who he claims were responsible.

He then comes to accuse our National Security Advisor and finally, he now points his finger at India’s Minister of Home Affairs Mr Amit Shah! Time, they say, is a healer. In Trudeau’s case time will tell next year when he goes to the polls. From what one hears his luck has run out and these are his last few months. Let us hope that those media reports are true. We need better relations with Canada and one ambitious man shouldn’t be able to rock a stable friendship that has existed for decades. Punjab and India as a whole could then look towards a bright and stable future.

–IANS

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