Justin Trudeau's statement on Nijjar killing was irresponsible, says Indian diaspora in Canada
Brampton, September 28
Indian diaspora in Canada has termed the allegations against India made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar as “extremely irresponsible”, stating that the former could have rephrased his statement to ensure that the Hindu and Sikh communities are not impacted.
“The announcement made by Trudeau in parliament was something that could have been avoided and he could have followed diplomatic channels,” Indo-Canadian businessman from Brampton Ravi Sharma said.
He was responding to Trudeau’s allegations on the Indian government’s involvement in the shooting of Nijjar on Canadian soil.
“The moment the announcement was made, the Hindu community in Canada was on alert and it did create an immediate impact and people felt they were in distress and they were fearful because the pitch that was made in parliament sounded as if a Hindu government had killed a Sikh leader. Which is not the fact. The fact is very different. And Hindus and Sikhs have always lived in peace and harmony in Canada and the statement made by Trudeau was extremely irresponsible,” the businessman said.
Sharma said Trudeau could have “simply rephrased it in order to make sure that the communities are not impacted. And this is what I have been hearing from my fellow Hindu and Sikh members and the people that I know. I hope the communities will work towards strengthening their bonds and this statement will have no impact as far as our community relations go and we will continue to make Canada strong”.
Last Thursday, Trudeau said his country stood by the international rules-based order and repeated his charge on India’s role in the killing of Nijjar stating that there are “credible reasons” to believe the same.
Ravi said the Canadian government needs to either put out a great proof to prove that the Indian government was involved or there has to be a mechanism that has to work out with a complete, thorough and impartial investigation into the matter and put the complete results out in public so that the public opinion can be rectified or changed to know exactly what happened and how did this killing transpire.
Indo-Canadian Geeta Bhadauria, meanwhile, said: “I think what the Canadian and Indian governments should do is that they should not speak through the media, but through official spokespersons about what they’re doing to resolve the issue.”
She said all this information should be laid out in public because when things happen behind closed doors, that’s when people become suspicious and they lose their trust in their elected leaders.
Canada recently said it wants to “work constructively with India” regarding the alleged involvement of New Delhi in the killing of Nijjar.
Bhadauria said: “I think the Canadian and Indian governments need to start having more dialogue and start addressing the issues that have been raised. They need to understand what is the truth, not their individual truths, but what’s the actual truth.”
She said: “We need to find out what exactly happened and make sure that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police can get to the bottom of this. I think the Canadian and Indian governments need to make sure that they don’t contaminate the RCMP’s investigative process.”
On Trudeau’s allegations against India, she said the announcement was full of prevarications. “It was a lot of possible links, active investigation, and there were no actual solid leads or actual real information that the Canadian public could cling to and understand what’s going on,” she said.
“The Canadian people want to know. We want to know that we’re safe in Canada from foreign governments, from foreigners, and even from terrorist acts within our own country,” Bhadauria added.