Canada is creating a "Frankenstein monster" by offering full support to Khalistani extremists, who are engaged in anti-India activities on its soil, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) chief spokesperson in the northern state of Punjab, Colonel (Retired) Jaibans Singh, told Sputnik India on Tuesday.
Khalistan supporters seek a separate homeland for Sikhs to be carved out from Punjab in India.
Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau is ranting about the matter of Hardeep Singh Nijjar because of his political compulsions at the moment in which
he wishes to keep his house in order and ensure that he stays in power till the current term of the government is completed next year, Singh noted.
Nijjar, a proscribed terrorist in India, was murdered by armed assailants near his residence in Vancouver last year. Subsequently, the Trudeau administration blamed "agents of the Indian government" for carrying out his killing.
India should urge the Canada's government to curb the activities of Khalistani extremists residing in the country, as they undermine healthy ties between the two nations and spread hatred, he opined.
"Shielding of anti-India radicals in Canada is a political compulsion of the Trudeau administration and certain political parties of that country. They are playing a very dangerous card, which they should seize immediately because the Frankenstein monster that they are creating is going to harm Canada much more than it can harm India," the BJP official pointed out.
There was no place for radicalism in Punjab as the Khalistan agenda has no takers in the state, Singh stated, adding that Khalistanis have even
less than 1% vote in Punjab and hence, the matter is entirely in the domain of the Canadian government, political parties, and their people.
The Khalistan card is a money-making machine for two reasons: first, it receives funding from certain powers that are inimical to India's growth and seek to weaken it, particularly in the border state of Punjab, he emphasised. These entities aim to keep the pot boiling to embarrass the Indian government both nationally and internationally, the commentator stated.
"The second is the gullible Sikhs settled abroad, who are being fed this illusion that there can be a separate homeland for Sikhs in India which is practically impossible. Based on this illusion when they receive some money, they are ready to take up the matter politically and socially on the streets of Canada. It is the money they are getting conduits that motivates certain people to keep the flag of Khalistan alive," Singh explained.
Canada's allegations of the Lawrence Bishnoi criminal gang reportedly working at the behest of the Indian government to eliminate Khalistan sympathisers there is a diversionary tactic, Chintamani Mahapatra, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor, the founder and honorary chairman of the Odisha-based geopolitical think tank Kalinga Institute of Indo-Pacific Studies asserted in a conversation with Sputnik India.
The academic highlighted the presence of a Khalistan lobby in Canada that influences political dynamics, suggesting that the Canadian government appears to be a victim of this lobby and, in its bid to stay in power, is
not taking action against anti-India extremists. Moreover, Trudeau does not care much about Canada's ties with the Indian government as he is making a political football out of the Nijjar issue, he stressed.
Trudeau has been repeating the same claims for a long time, indicating that Canada lacks evidence and that these allegations are mere bloopers: yet, his government continues to peddle lies to put pressure on India and the Global South, echoed Gulrez Sheikh, BJP spokesperson from Madhya Pradesh and strategic affairs analyst, in an interview with Sputnik India.
History has shown how the Anglo-Saxons have used imperialism to suppress the growth of Global South nations like India, and what
Canada is currently doing represents a 21st-century version of imperialism, he elaborated.
From the Israel-Palestine conflict in the Middle East to the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, and the challenges faced by African nations, all these issues have been shaped by Western imperial powers.
"In a nutshell, they want political uncertainty in the Global South countries, particularly India because they are jealous of its rise as a major power on the world stage," Sheikh concluded.