The government of India is launching a diplomatic protest over a parade in Surrey this month that included a float with alleged terrorist leader Talwinder Singh Parmar portrayed as a Sikh martyr.
"We are very much concerned that this happened," Zile Singh, India's deputy consul-general, said yesterday in an interview. Diplomats from the High Commission Office in Ottawa intend to raise the matter with Canadian officials, he said.
"This is not acceptable to us. We intend to convey that it is not acceptable, so the [Canadian]government understands," Mr. Singh said. "This should not happen again."
The Sikh community in Greater Vancouver, which is splintered into factions, holds two competing parades to mark the Punjabi new year and the beginning of the harvest in Punjab. Gurdwara Sahib Dasmesh Darbar of Surrey held its annual Vaisakhi parade on April 7. The Vaisakhi Parade organized by Vancouver's Khalsa Diwan Society was held on Sunday.
The parade in Surrey attracted thousands of people including prominent B.C. and federal politicians. News reports say the parade had a float that included Mr. Parmar among the portraits of Sikh martyrs and some organizers wore work jackets with the word "Khalistan," the name proposed for an independent state for the Sikhs carved out of India. Some children were wearing jackets with the logo of the International Sikh Youth Federation.
Mr. Parmar, a militant Khalistani advocate, has been identified in a B.C. court case as the mastermind behind a mid-air bomb explosion aboard an Air-India flight in 1985, en route from Canada to London, England. Born in Punjab and later made a Canadian citizen, he was killed by police in India in 1992. There were 329 people killed in the Air-India bombing, which remains one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in aviation history.
Mr. Singh said the portrayal of Mr. Parmar as a martyr was "very objectionable." Indian officials were also concerned that some people involved in the parade showed their support for groups considered terrorist organizations and banned in Canada, the International Sikh Youth Federation and Babbar Khalsa.
The Indian consulate in Vancouver is aware of the views of those who attend the Surrey temple and does not associate with their events, Mr. Singh said. The diplomats however support events sponsored by the Vancouver temple.
"We know the difference," he said, adding that he thought that Canadian politicians should also be aware of the differences. The politicians should know that the charitable status of the banned groups has been revoked and about the Khalistan issue, he also said.
"All politicians must be aware of what is going on. They know about the Air-India disaster and what happened," Mr. Singh said.
Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, who was beaten up in the mid-1980s after speaking out against militant Sikh separatists, said he expected "a strong denunciation" from all politicians of any display that involves support for violence and hate."
"I'm personally as a Canadian very, very saddened that this kind of display of violence is deemed to be acceptable in a parade that celebrates diversity," Mr. Dosanjh said.
Mr. Dosanjh cautioned against jumping to any conclusions about the Surrey temple. Temple groups are fairly loose organizations and those who allowed the Parmar poster in the parade may not be representative of the temple.
A person at the temple who did not give his name yesterday said an executive member would be available for a comment today.