When Canada’s new Foreign Affairs Minister, Anita Anand, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India last week, the biggest takeaway wasn’t what they discussed, but what they deliberately avoided: Khalistan.
During a CPAC news conference,
a reporter asked Anand if an ongoing referendum — taking place mainly in Canada, Australia and New Zealand — proposing to carve an independent state out of India known as “Khalistan” was brought up during her time in India.
“That issue was not raised specifically with me,” Anand said. “I’d rather focus on the points I made, as I’m acting on Canada’s best interests here in India.”
In
a separate interview with CBC, however, Anand said she had discussed “transnational repression” and “outlawing the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.”
It remains unclear how such a conversation could have taken place without mentioning Khalistan given her previous boss’s
remarks in the House of Commons on the Indian government’s alleged involvement in what then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called an “
extrajudicial killing” of Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Reporting around the time of Trudeau’s comments by CBC and senior foreign correspondent Evan Dyer previously had
drawn a link between Nijjar’s murder, the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, and elements within the Modi government — making the absence of a discussion on Khalistan all the more perplexing.
Anand’s comments on Khalistan, or lack thereof, mark a notable shift from former Prime Minister Trudeau’s approach.
Trudeau has historically
championed the Khalistan issue as reflecting Canada’s dedication to free expression, human rights and support for the Sikh diaspora.
truenorthwire.com
