It was rated only L3, but a float that depicted the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was featured at an event in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) on Sunday. This provocative float was part of a function on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Operation Bluestar, through which the Indian Army had entered the Golden Temple in June 1984 to eliminate the storming Khalistani militants.
This particular float depicted some goons firing at an effigy of the late PM, Indira Gandhi, death of who had occurred earlier in the year.
Canada’s High Commissioner for India, Cameron MacKay, was rather prompt in reacting to the issue, saying,
“It is highly unfortunate, and the fact of the matter is that the promotion of violence is never acceptable in Canada.”
He was not the only one to condemn the act; earlier, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, Dominic LeBlanc, condemned a similar practice during a protest considering the Indian Consulate in Vancouver.
In reaction to these incidents, India has demanded names for “exemplary action” from each degree of the Canadian government. India’s High Commissioner in Ottawa, Sanjay Kumar Verma, stated that the Indian contractors in the country are afraid of such hatred being disseminated and said that it was not the first time such incidents happened in Canada.
India and Canada have had some troubled times in the past, especially when Indian-origin Canadian citizen and Khalistani separatist militant Hardeep Singh Nijjer was killed outside a gurdwara in Surrey, Canada, last year. Although May said that Canada killed the three Indians because they were Indian agents, New Delhi rejected such an assertion as “baseless and absurd.”
While the two nations attempt to address and resolve these issues, concerns over the revival of violent themes and the use of provocative symbols persist, implying a need for positive engagement and understanding of the dynamics that define the nature of the relations.
