India on Tuesday strongly condemned the private member’s motion adopted by Ontario provincial Assembly, Canada, terming the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as “genocide” and said the language of the resolution was “exaggerated and created disquiet” here. The issue was flagged by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley during his meeting with his visiting Canadian counterpart Harjit Singh Sajjan. Jaitley said the resolution amounted to questioning India’s “democratic credentials”.
Incidentally, ruling BJP’s ally Akali Dal had raised the issue in Parliament recently welcoming the resolution and demanded that the Ministry of External Affairs “immediately withdraw” its statement which said India “rejected” the “misguided” motion. Main Opposition party Congress in the Rajya Sabha had protested against the use of word “genocide”.
Making India’s stand clear, Jaitley said the Ontario motion was “unreal and exaggerated” and the language did not conform to reality adding it was “unwarranted”, defence ministry sources said here.
Jaitley also said since both the countries are liberal democracies, the resolution was not in spirit of bilateral relations shared by the two nations. Moreover, such a motion did not generate “right atmosphere” and led to “considerable amount of disquiet in India”, he told Sajjan, sources said.
On his part, the Canadian defence minister disassociated himself from the Ontario motion and urged the Indian government to refrain from reading too much into it. He said the motion was moved through a private member’s bill and only 34 members voted for it.
Moreover, the motion came about in the backdrop of elections in that assembly, Sajjan said even as he termed the issue as “not very significant”, sources said. The Canadian minister also stressed that the current political dispensation there was keen to further strengthen ties between the two countries and it was evident from regular visits by top ministers.
Sajjan also rubbished Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s allegation that he is “pro-Khalistani” and said he would not get into any petty politics with the Congress leader. “I am not going to get into any petty politics of one chief minister of a province... I am very very proud of my roots and my action speak for myself,” he told reporters. Ahead of his visit, Singh had said he would not meet Sajjan alleging that the Canadian minister is a “Khalistani sympathiser”.
This apart, during the talks between the two defence ministers, it was decided to explore more avenues to have partnerships in research and development to give a fillip to the ‘Make in India’ policy. The two nations also decided to have more intense joint exercises especially in the sphere of high altitude and cold conditions besides maritime drills.