A former Sikh cabinet minister in the Canadian government termed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as an “idiot” who never understood that the vast majority of Sikhs in Canada are “secular” and do not aspire for Khalistan, news agency PTI reported.
Ujjal Dosanjh, former NDP premier of British Columbia, said that Trudeau’s approach has “emboldened the Khalistani extremists and created fear among Sikhs in Canada with a moderate outlook.”
The former minister asserted that less than five per cent of Canada’s 8,00,000-strong Sikh community is inclined to the idea of Khalistan, a separate Sikh country carved out of India’s Punjab state.
“The silent majority of the Sikhs do not want to have anything to do with Khalistan. They just don’t speak out because they’re afraid of violence and violent repercussions,” wrote the 78-year-old in a column for Canadian newspaper National Post on Sunday.
Trudeau “never really understood the vast majority of Sikhs are quite secular in their outlook, even though they go to the temple,” he added.
Dosanjh also faulted the Canadian premier’s approach towards the issue and said the issue has reached a point in Canada where the largest Sikh diaspora community in the world has become “co-opted by the Khalistanis to the point where this obscure separatist movement has become a Canadian problem”.
The former minister also alleged that Khalistani supporters controlled many temples in Canada and blamed Trudeau’s approach for it.
Dosanjh also described the identity crisis of Canadian Sikhs, saying, “Canadians now equate Khalistanis with Sikhs, as if we are all Khalistanis if we’re Sikhs”.
The ex-minister also recalled a round table conversation with Trudeau during their term as parliamentarians and labelled the Canadian Prime Minister as an “idiot” sociologically and politically.
“We were MPs from 2008 to 2011 together, and I had a long chat with him about identity and religion and all that, with all of these Khalistanis sitting around the table. And he agreed with them, rather than me,” he wrote.
Dosanjh also said there are ways by which Trudeau could reset strained diplomatic relations with India. “It’s just a matter of eating a bit of humble pie and saying, ‘Look, let’s start over again. India is a good friend.’ That’s all you do…That’s how diplomacy works,” he said.
(With PTI inputs)