Former Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier has criticized the Justin Trudeau-Liberal government for its official indifference towards radical Sikh militants promoting the Khalistan movement abroad.
Khalistan is a secessionist movement that seeks to carve a separate state out of India's Punjab.
“I am certainly concerned that relations between India and Canada are in danger of deteriorating because of Canada's official indifference towards the actions and rhetoric of Sikh radical militants in my country,” Bernier told Sputnik on Wednesday.
The Canadian politician was formerly with the Conservative Party before launching the People’s Party of Canada in 2018.
Bernier reckoned that there were several reasons for Trudeau’s indifference towards the activities of the pro-Khalistan supporters in the country.
“First is the fact that thanks to Canada's mass immigration policies, all establishment parties in this country are now playing ethnic politics. They are more concerned with pandering to various ethnic groups than to defend Canada's national interests, especially when it comes to foreign policy,” he explained.
As per Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), there are more Indian migrants arriving to live in the country than people from any other nation each year.
Bernier highlighted that many Canadians are from the Sikh community. He said that the Canadian establishment wasn’t pushing back against the “militant elements” for the fear of offending the community and “losing votes.”
He went on to cite an instance in 2019, when the Trudeau government removed a direct reference to the Sikh religion in a report on the threat posed by “extremists who support violent means to establish an independent state within India."
Canada Shouldn’t Get Involved in India’s Internal Affairs: Ex-FM
The former top diplomat also underscored his concern about the political stance adopted by Jagmeet Singh, who is Trudeau’s coalition partner and heads the New Democratic Party (NDP), the third-biggest political grouping in the country.
Singh has previously been denied an Indian visa for his support for the Khalistan movement. This month, the Indian authorities blocked his Twitter account in the country after he criticized New Delhi for communication curbs in Punjab in the wake of police launching a massive manhunt to nab radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh.
Amritpal Singh heads ‘Warris Punjab De’ (inheritors of Punjab), whose members back a separate Sikh state.
The communication curbs in Punjab were lifted last week.
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told the country’s parliament last week that the government was very “closely monitoring” the situation in Punjab.
Bernier said that it took years for Jagmeet to “clearly condemn” the terrorist bombing of an Air India flight in 1985. The mid-air bombing over the Atlantic Ocean, claimed by a banned terrorist group Babbar Khalsa, left all 329 people aboard dead.
“I believe Canada should not get involved in internal conflicts in India, and our government and political leaders should stop pandering to extremists in order to get votes,” Bernier stated.
Indian Interests in Canada Come Under Attack
The remarks by the Canadian foreign minister come against the backdrop of attacks on Indian diplomats in missions in several countries in the West, which include the United Kingdom, the US, and Canada.
India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has lodged strong diplomatic protests with all three governments through their envoys in New Delhi and asked them to arrest and prosecute people involved in these attacks.
In Canada, there have been several incidents of the vandalizing of Mahatma Gandhi’s statues installed in Ontario and British Colombia.
New Delhi has strongly condemned these incidents and called for action against the people involved in these acts.