What is the Khalistan movement that triggered India-Canada rift? Explained
PM Justin Trudeau's bombshell statement on Tuesday accused the Indian government agency of killing Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June this year. However, India vehemently rejected the claims and later asked a Canadian diplomat to exit the country within the next five days in a tit-for-tat move. Following this, Trudeau clarified, “The government of India needs to take this matter with the utmost seriousness.
We are doing that, we are not looking to provoke or escalate." The row revolves around the Sikh independence or Khalistan movement. India has repeatedly accused Canada of supporting the movement which is banned in India but has support among the Sikh diaspora. In India, the Sikh independence movement turned out to be a bloody armed insurgency that shook the country in the 1970s and 1980s.
The movement centered in northern Punjab state, where Sikhs are the majority. The insurgency lasted more than a decade and was suppressed by the Indian government crackdown in which thousands were killed including Sikh militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. In 1984, Indian forces stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar to flush out separatists who had taken refuge there.
On October 31, 1984, then-Indian PM Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards. Her death triggered a series of anti-Sikh riots. In Punjab, the Khalistan movement still has some supporters but there is no active insurgency in the state today.
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