Uncertainty 'is killing us': Sikhs in India are in limbo amid Canada dispute
Sikh temple. Clutching a box of sweets and a shiny blue-and-white toy airplane, Singh and his teenage daughter, Navpreet Kaur, bowed outside the place of worship, Talhan Sahib in the North Indian state of Punjab.
For Singh and many others, a diplomatic crisis has caused a personal one, too.
Though he has a valid visa and plane ticket, his plans to leave next week for Canada have been abruptly put on hold because of a feud between India and Canada over a Sikh's killing on Canadian soil, which India's government is accused of orchestrating.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a separatist Sikh leader from Punjab, was shot dead in June by hooded assailants. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government considered him a terrorist, and he was on a wanted list, but Indian officials deny accusations made last week by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which have caused a firestorm.
One result: The Indian government has temporarily put on hold visas to citizens of Canada, which has a large Indian diaspora.
Both countries also expelled diplomats in a tit-for-tat response, and trade talks are frozen.
Now Kulwant Singh is simply afraid to go, suspecting that flights might be canceled in coming weeks, leaving him helpless in Canada.
«It hurts, this cold war, and there is an uncertainty now which is killing us,» Singh, a farmer who had hoped to explore business opportunities with extended family in Canada, said dejectedly. «We are seeing a lot of statements being thrown around.
Each of their sentences, each word of our leaders, is affecting the lives of each one of us. Whatever they say or do has a direct effect on us.»
Set amid lush green paddy fields and surrounded by imposing billboards advertising migration services, the temple draws
