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Canada politician Dosanjh nearly flew in illfated Air India flight
TORONTO: Nearly 15 years before he became the first Indian-origin premier (the equivalent of a chief minister) of a Canadian province, Ujjal Dosanjh was booked on
TORONTO: Nearly 15 years before he became the first Indian-origin premier (the equivalent of a chief minister) of a Canadian province, Ujjal Dosanjh was booked on a flight to travel to India.
Dosanjh had decided to fly Air India as “a gesture of defiance” against pro-Khalistani elements in Canada that had called for a boycott of India’s national carrier. But prior to departure, pressed by his wife, Dosanjh cancelled the reservation.
Days later, he awoke to the news that the flight, Air India 182 on board the aircraft named Kanishka, had disintegrated mid-air, in what turned out to be the worst aviation terror incident before 9/11.
Dosanjh reveals this for the first time in his just published memoir, “Journey After Midnight: India, Canada and the Road Beyond”.
Dosanjh had been criticised by Khalistanis as a “traitor” and an “arch enemy”. “We were sure this was sheer coincidence. Surely, the extremists would not have designed their most evil deed around me, a small fry in the scheme of things. Their target was India, the idea of India as pluralistic, secular and united. Then again, killing two birds with one stone would not have hurt the effort,” he writes.
Dosanjh details his upbringing in Punjab, leaving for England and settling in Canada. Not only did he become premier of British Columbia, but after moving on to federal politics, became Canada’s health minister in 2004.
An opponent of the Khalistan movement in Canada, Dosanjh survived a murderous attack on February 8, 1985.
In 1983, he had travelled to India and had an acrimonious exchange with separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in the Golden Temple and met then PM Indira Gandhi.
Replying to a letter he sent her after Operation Bluestar, Gandhi wrote: “Few decisions in my long political career were sadder than the one to ask our troops to clear the terrorist hideout which was misusing the refuge of the Golden Temple. It was a duty I owed to the nation and the Sikh community .”
As Khalistani extremism rears its head in Canada again, Dosanjh said in an interview: “This kind of thing is going to remain for a long time..”
