letters
The Offshore Radicals
On E-mail Guriqbal Singh Bodal : This refers to your cover story Panth and a Foreign Hand ( Feb 12 ). Insightful coverage of how the attitudes of the Sikh diaspora are shaping up around the question of Khalistan . Prof Rajivlochan ’ s article , The British Seeds of Secession , provided an apt historical backdrop to put the current separatist trend in perspective .
Bangalore S . Sreenivas : Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh ’ s approach to the issue of separatism is rational and pragmatic . His statement , “ It is only the radicals and the Khalistani sympathisers with whom I have a problem ,” is reassuring given how sensitive the situation is in the current context of the Sikh diaspora . The government at the Centre would be able to deal with the problem better if they engaged with Captain Singh in spite of their political differences .
On E-mail Kanwal Gill : The Indian government doesn ’ t want Sikhs and other minorities to raise their voices against the long and continuing history of human rights violations in India . Before venturing into an analysis of how minorities in Western countries are ‘ overstepping the line ’, why don ’ t the government and the media ( hard to tell which is which anymore ) look at what is happening within the country ? Here , right wing Hindutva forces are openly threatening , attacking and killing innocents belonging to minorities while the government looks the other way .
Muscat Ramachandran Nair : This refers to Marked by a violent time . Kulbir Kaur Dhami has set a great example by taking hundreds of children — who were orphaned or abandoned due to police encounters during and after the Punjab insurgency
February 12 , 2018
years — into her care . Since both Kulbir Kaur and her husband had experienced suffering in those times , they would have known well how to take care of the youngsters who were left alone at the end of a dreadfully violent conflict .
On E-mail Prateek Sachan : It seems Canada ’ s multiculturalism model is being exploited by all the hardline elements , whether it is Khalistanis or Islamists . PM Justin Trudeau ’ s app easement policy may bear sour fruits for Canada in the future .
On E-mail P . S . Kaur : By saying that he has no reservations in welcoming Canadian PM Justin Trudeau to Punjab , Captain Amarinder Singh has shown admirable statesmanship . He had earlier boycotted Canadian defence minister Harjit Sajjan and advised Trudeau to keep a check on Khalistani elements in Canada . The Punjab CM ’ s advice about the burgeoning of Khalistani elements ’ ingress and influence in the Canadian government must be considered seriously by Trudeau . In 2017 , some ministers with Khalistani leanings in Trudeau ’ s cabinet prevented Singh from meeting with the Punjabi diaspora in Canada , when he went there before the Punjab Assembly elections .
AMRITSAR Lal Singh : Despite abjectly ignoring the rights of Canada ’ s indigenous population , Canadian PM Justin Trudeau ’ s diversity and inclusion experiment has earned him the affection of many communities , including Sikhs . Even those within the Sikh diaspora with separatist leanings have warmed up to the perhaps ‘ overliberal ’ Trudeau . But Canada ’ s liberal edifice is also marked by a painful chapter , the bombed AI Flight 182 in 1985 in which the majority of the dead were Canadians . Khalistan sympathisers have found quite an acceptance in Trudeau ’ s government . A poll conducted by the Canada-based Angus Reid Institute showed that nearly twothirds of Canadians are open to the idea of having a Sikh PM . Jagmeet Singh , a Sikh member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament , had emerged as a viable leader of the New Democratic Party . Singh ’ s statement that selfdetermination is a basic right of the people in Punjab , Quebec and Catalonia , reminds us of the black days of the Khalistan movement , way back in the 1980s . The way these elements are getting a foothold in Canada , it won ’ t be impossible for a Khalistani sympathiser to become Canada ’ s PM .
On E-mail Sumir Sharma : Stereotypes in both Indian literature and popular culture have portrayed Sikh characters as ‘ courageous , loyal but slow witted ’. Instances of such one-liner On E-mail Anil S .
Unless it is acknowledged and dealt with every day , a violent past never ceases to haunt .
6 Outlook 26 February 2018