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Indo-Canadian groups oppose demand by NDP MPs to bar Mohan Bhagwat from Canada
Indo-Canadian community counters MPs' call to bar RSS chief Bhagwat from Canada, arguing it risks division and prejudice against Hindus.
Countering a letter from two Canadian opposition MPs to bar Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat from visiting the country in the coming weeks, the Indo-Canadian community has argued their language “risks division, not a scheduled address to a diaspora community.”
The counter petition, in the form letter of a letter to be sent to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Ministers of Public Safety, Foreign Affairs and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, came after the call to bar the RSS sarsanghchalak from entering Canada for events scheduled for August 31 and September 1.
On Friday, two MPs from the New Democratic Party (NDP) Heather McPherson and Jenny Kwan called on the federal government “to deny entry to the head of the fascist paramilitary organisation” and renewed the previous demand, voiced when the party was led by Jagmeet Singh, “to ban the RSS entirely.”
Describing RSS as an “extremist group”, McPherson said, “Multiple minority communities fear his presence in Canada could amplify hate and violence towards them and risk the safety of vulnerable individuals.”
“Pertinent sections of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act must be applied to protect Canadians and declare the RSS and its members inadmissible,” Kwan said.
A letter with their demand was sent to Carney and the three ministers.
However, the counter-letter campaign which began on Saturday said applying the term fascist to “an entire community’s principal cultural movement would rightly be recognised as prejudice dressed up as advocacy.”
The petition also questions the allegations made by the MPs and sought “properly tested evidentiary record of the kind Canadian law actually requires” to substantiate them.
“A letter from sitting Members of Parliament branding the world’s largest Hindu voluntary organisation ‘fascist’ and calling for the wholesale exclusion of its members risks casting suspicion on the roughly 828,000 Canadians who identified as Hindu in Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census,” it said.
This will be Bhagwat’s first trip to Canada, and the first by an RSS chief to the country in over 20 years since KS Sudarshan’s visit in 2005. The visit is in the final stages of planning and he is only expected to travel to Toronto. His visit to Canada will be followed by a five-day tour of the United States which will conclude with a public programme in New York City. He is expected to hold a public event with the diaspora in Toronto on August 31 and participate in meetings the next day.
The events are being organised as part of RSS’ global outreach efforts. Organisers are also taking security measures due to the possibility of protests by pro-Khalistan groups during the visit.
