It is often referred to as the last bastion of the Khalistani Movement. Vancouver in Canada is the hub of Sikh separatism or at least what is left of it.
No Indian Prime Minister has visited Canada since the Khalistani Movement took root in India and found a fertile ground in Canada. Funding for the separatist movement and international propaganda was from here.
Almost two decades after the Khalistani Movement petered out in India, it continues to find favour among many Sikhs in Canada. Posters of Khalistan are clearly visible in Gurudwaras and community leaders still harbour grudge against the Indian government for not bringing to justice the perpetrators of crimes against the Sikh community.
Recently a Punjabi film, Sadda Haq, renewed memories of the hardships faced by militancy and riot-affected families. Though experts say facts have been arguably twisted in the film, many youngsters claim that that is the version they have heard from their parents and grandparents.
There are mixed feelings that Canadian Sikhs have towards the BJP. While some lean towards it because of the close and long association that the BJP has with the Akali Dal and its right wing leanings, still others are wary of allowing themselves to trust with the new breed of BJP leadership, which has strong RSS links.
Despite India having a Prime Minister of Sikh faith for ten long years, there was no bilateral visit to Canada by Dr Singh.
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He visited Toronto for the G-20 summit. He and Mrs. Gursharan Kaur paid respects to the 329 victims of the 1985 Kanishka bombing and assured their families that the "entire Indian nation shares your sense of loss and grief". But Sikh separatists held noisy protests in Toronto against the presence of what they termed "India's poster-boy Prime Minister" even though Dr. Singh had expressed regret on behalf of the Congress Party against the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.
Dr. Singh is a practicing Sikh and visits gurudwaras occasionally. In 2009, while campaigning in Punjab during the Lok Sabha elections, Dr. Manmohan Singh said that the 1984 anti-Sikh riots were a "painful episode but cannot be kept alive for ever."
It is likely that Prime Minister Modi will also take the same line. Express regret, symbolically apologize to the community in the spirit of Michchhami Dukka?a?, an ancient Prakrit phrase, which literally means "may all the evil that has been done be fruitless."
The Jain community on Kshamavani Diwas or Forgiveness Day uses the term liberally. Guru Tegh Bahadur the 9th Guru of the Sikhs who was executed by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb preached thus; in anger man commits evil deeds. He loses at once his sense and his religion. When anger springs up in a man's heart, what crime is there he will not perpetrate?"
Prime Minister Modi is sure to invoke the sentiments of forgiveness and compassion that are common in all faiths, when he visits the Gurudwara and Temple in Vancouver.
He is expected to call upon the Hindu and Sikh communities to lay to rest inter-community fracas and join in nation building both in Canada and India.
Modi is expected to extend an arm of friendship to the pro-Khalistani hardliners to turn the tide of anti-India sentiment.
It is a challenge, no doubt, but, it is a challenge that he has taken on. Nobody before him even tried. (ANI)
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