2nd September 2023 – NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has once again been found in middle of controversy.
In a private interview with CanAm News, he was asked about his reaction to the recent attack on a Hindu temple by Khalistanis in Surrey, British Columbia. Without condemning the attack directly, he said that “whenever these kind of disruptions or violence happen in the society, we lose sight of the real goal which is to tackle the inequality in society.”
He was then asked on how incidents such as this (attacks on Hindu temples) impact the Canada-India relations. Dodging the courtesy to condemn the attack, he said that India has a very abysmal human rights track record and he has been long calling for strong sanctions against India. (Watch the full video here – https://twitter.com/canamnews/status/1696957291516539039?s=20)
Singh has always been vocal in his claims about India’s foreign interference in Canada. The Government of India has of course denied such claims in the past. Both nations have pointed fingers at each other on the issue of foreign interference in respective countries.
In June 2023, Dr. S. Jaishankar stated that Canadian politics is being driven by vote-bank and the Canadian response to the Khalistani issue has long been a cause of concern for India. (https://www.indianarrative.com/world-news/vote-bank-politics-stopping-canada-to-act-against-khalistanis-eam-s-jaishankar-146482.html)
Singh’s party is a coalition partner with the Liberals in the House of Commons. It will be interesting to see if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his team brings up any of Singh’s concern against India as PM visits New Delhi next week for the G20 summit. (https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2023/08/30/prime-minister-travel-indo-pacific-strengthen-ties)
