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Canadian ‘martyrs’ parade irks India

The Indian government is upset that a Sikh parade in western Canada displayed images of the men who assassinated former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi and described them as martyrs, an Indian diplomat said.

“Showing these pictures of dead terrorists amounts to glorification of terrorism and violence — showing them as martyrs is unacceptable to us,” Ashok Kumar, India’s consul-general in Vancouver, said on Thursday.

Kumar said that an Indian Cabinet minister recently raised the subject with Helena Guergis, Canada’s secretary of state for foreign affairs, during a meeting in India.

The April 12 incident at a parade in Surrey, British Columbia, marred a religious and cultural festival attended by thousands of people and was an attempt by a very small group to push their agenda, he said.

“We want Canada to address this issue, to take into account our concerns,” he said.

Parade organizers have maintained that such displays are meant to remind people of how Sikhs were treated in India and why there are calls for a separate Sikh homeland.

Kumar applauded the decision of several Canadian politicians, including Surrey’s mayor, to stay away from staged events at the parade, but he said Ottawa should take a strong, public stance against any images that glorify violence.

A spokesman for Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier said that Conservative Members of Parliament were told not to participate in the parade this year.

“After consultation with security agencies and provincial officials, we urged our caucus members not to attend functions with the organizers on the main stage,” Neil Hrab said. “We therefore did not send government MPs, or Conservative Party candidates, to partake in the ceremonies or to appear on floats.”

The event caused similar controversy last year after a parade float featured a photo of Talwinder Singh Parmar, the alleged mastermind of the 1985 Air India bombing and related bombing at Japan’s Narita Airport.

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and several local Members of Parliament were forced to explain their attendance at last year’s parade after the controversy surfaced.

Air India Flight 182 from Toronto to London, originating in Vancouver, British Columbia, exploded and crashed off Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing 329 people. The bombing has been widely blamed on Sikh separatists who used British Columbia as a base for their independence campaign in northern India. The dead included 82 children and 280 Canadian citizens, most of them of Indian origin or descent.

Only one person has so far been convicted in the bombing.
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