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India asks Canada to denounce and stop Nov 6 Khalistan Referendum

Serving a demarche to Justin Trudeau government, the Indian High Commission has informed that the proscribed terror organization Sikh for Justice was trying to polarise the student community on religious lines by allowing Sikh students to vote apart from promoting terror and violence.

Updated on: Oct 13, 2022, 07:48:04 IST
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India has asked Canada to denounce the so-called “Khalistan Referendums” by proscribed terrorist organization “Sikh for Justice” on November 6 at Ontario and act against those who promote terror and violence against the largest democracy in the world. It has asked the Justin Trudeau government to stop the so-called referendum and ensure that no Canadian government property is used to spew hatred or call for violence against Indian people.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau.

On Tuesday, the High Commission in Ottawa served a demarche’ on the Executive Director of Global Affairs Canada in Ontario stating that the November 6 so-called referendum in Paul Coffey Arena in Mississauga would be the second unlawful exercise after the proscribed SFJ had organized another such exercise on September 18 at Brampton, Ontario. India has informed Canada that such anti-India activities were being promoted by violent terrorist organizations that advocate the killing of innocent civilians.

Though its High Commission, New Delhi has reminded the Justin Trudeau government that both the countries had agreed at the highest levels, not to allow the use of their territories for activities detrimental to each other’s security and national interest. The Canadian government had earlier conveyed in writing to New Delhi that it does not recognize such so-called “referendums” vide a note verbale on September 16, 2022.

While the Canadian government is expected to resort to plea that it cannot stop free airing of views as part of liberal speech, the Indian High Commission has informed their counterparts that the referendum organizers are trying to polarize the Indian community and radicalize Sikh students by asking them to vote in the Nov 6 exercise. It has pointed out that the outreach of organizers to enlist Indian students was a matter of grave concern as this action by proscribed SFJ will politicize Indian students by dividing them on religious lines apart from taking politics to campuses and vitiating the peaceful environment.

While India time and again has asked Canada and the US to take action against SFJ’s terrorist leader G S Pannu through security and diplomatic channels, the two countries inexplicably have looked the other way.

 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta

Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.

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