NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh took part in a separatist Sikh homeland rally in San Francisco in June of 2015 that venerated a violent Sikh religious leader who was killed in the Indian army assault on the Golden Temple in 1984.
Mr. Singh, then an NDP member of the Ontario Legislature, was invited to speak at a “sovereignty rally” where speakers denounced India and called for an independent Sikh state known as Khalistan.
Mr. Singh’s appearance at the 2015 rally could have an impact in the Indo-Canadian community where all three main political parties compete for votes in key ridings in the Greater Toronto area and Lower Mainland in British Columbia.
While the vast majority of Sikhs oppose extremism, the Trudeau Liberals are concerned about Mr. Singh’s potential appeal to voters of his own faith.
Any suggestion that Mr. Singh favours a separate Sikh state could split the vote in a community where many still harbour ill-feelings toward India for the violent crackdown in the Punjab after the 1984 assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Videos of the event posted on Facebook and YouTube show the stage on which Mr. Singh spoke featured a large poster of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the leader of an armed extremist group that occupied the Golden Temple. The militant religious leader was killed in a shootout with the Indian army after he had stockpiled weapons in the Golden Temple complex.
Video also shows Mr. Singh, who left provincial politics after he won the federal NDP leadership in October of 2017, walking in the pro-sovereignty march behind a truck that displayed signs saying “India out of Sikh Homeland,” and “1984 Sikh Genocide Independence.” Parade participants carried the same messages on placards as well as others including “Sikhs Demand Independence.”
In his speech, Mr. Singh accused India of “genocide” against Sikhs in the Golden Temple assault.
“Why do we talk about genocide, what happened to us?” Mr. Singh said, speaking in Punjabi that was translated into English for The Globe and Mail. “We are talking about it because, in our country where we live, that country intentionally tried to wipe us out, that in that country it was a planned process to attack the Golden Temple.”
One speaker, University of British Columbia PhD student Prabhsharanbir Singh, told the rally: “Let’s all today take a pledge that we will not sit idle until the Khalistan is achieved.” This speaker led the crowd in chants of “Khalistan!”
Full article: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-jagmeet-singh-attended-sikh-separatist-rally-in-2015/