Days after Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh cancelled all his political meetings in Canada, the former Chief Minister on Sunday announced cancellation of his visit to the country “for the time being”.
Announcing, Capt Amarinder said: “I am not backing out. The issue is in the court and it would take about 20 days. I will plan my tour accordingly.”
Sikh for Justice (SFJ) has lodged a complaint against him in Canada for human rights violation. Earlier, Canadian authorities had prohibited him from organising political meetings there.
He was on tour of US sub-continent and had proposed to visit USA and Canada to woo Punjabi NRIs. He is presently in USA.
Earlier, the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president slammed the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) for playing into the hands of the Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at the same time by trying to abuse an otherwise well-meaning and well-intentioned law aimed at protecting and safeguarding the human rights of the Canadian citizens across the world.
He also urged the Canadian authorities, both in the Government and the judiciary, to ensure that the law is not misused and abused for vested political interests by groups like the SFJ whose anti-India credentials are too well known, and ends up in the harassment of innocent and well-meaning people without any shade of evidence against them.
“Otherwise this law will undermine and defeat the very purpose for which it has been enacted”, he observed.
Capt Amarinder also suggested that the Indian Government must take up the matter of summoning of its leaders and public representatives by the courts in Canada with the Canadian Government.
“We just cannot be equated with dictatorships where there are no judicial systems and processes in place,” he said adding, “This involves the question of sovereignty of a nation with such a strong and transparent judicial system in place and an insult to both (the sovereignty and the judiciary)”.
Capt Amarinder, at the same time, rejected the allegations levelled in the complaint against him lodged in a Canadian court by the SFJ that there were torture cases of Canadian citizens reported during his Chief Ministership and the police officials allegedly involved in such incidents had been promoted by him.
“First of all, there were no such incidents between 2002 and 2007 when I was the Chief Minister as it was the most peaceful period in Punjab in the recent history.
“Presuming for the sake of argument that such incidents took place, why did it take someone more than 10 years to file a complaint and that too when I was planning to visit the country. Why were these complaints not made when I came here in 2004 as the Chief Minister of PunjabIJ” he questioned.
Referring to the promotions of some police officials accused of torture, between 2002 and 2007, he said that those officers are governed by the Indian Police Service (IPS) rules over which the State Governments do not have any control.
“Besides, we have a strong, transparent and powerful judicial system already in place in our country which takes care of everything”, he said, while pointing out that so many such officers have already been prosecuted and punished by the courts back home in India, while others are facing prosecution.
“These officials were prosecuted for the allegations of torture allegedly committed by them in 1980s and 1990s, decades before I became the Chief Minister of Punjab,” said Capt Amarinder.
Asserting that the SFJ was playing into the hands of the anti-India forces like the ISI to embarrass India, Capt Amarinder said that the Indian government, rising above the political considerations, must take up the matter with the Canadian government at the highest level.
He asked, has the SFJ ever lodged any such complaint against the visiting leaders from Pakistan, where a Sikh parliamentarian was gunned down just for his religionIJ
He also asked as why did the SFJ not object to the Aam Aadmi Party leader HS Phoolka when he addressed the public functions in Canada with a clear political messageIJ “And will the SFJ raise similar objections when Arvind Kejriwal will visit Canada by invoking the Canadian policy that prevented me from addressing public functionsIJ” he asked.IJ