A senior Indian-origin MP in Canada claimed on Wednesday, only days after a Hindu temple in Edmonton was vandalized, that radical Khalistanis were “polluting” the nation and “abusing” the freedoms given by the Charter of Rights.
The BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir in Edmonton, Alberta state, which is roughly 3,400 kilometers west-northwest of Ottawa, was vandalized on Monday morning with allegedly hostile and anti-India graffiti, amid an increase in Hinduphobia across Canada.
Khalistan separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun of Sikhs for Justice released a video demanding that Chandra Arya and his Hindu-Canadian friends return to India after Arya denounced the destruction of the Hindu temple and other acts of hate and violence committed by Khalistan supporters in Canada. Arya is a member of parliament from Nepean in the House of Commons.
“Hindus from all around the world have migrated to our beautiful nation of Canada. “We have come here from every country in South Asia, many countries in Africa and the Caribbean, and many other parts of the world, and Canada is our land,” Arya said in a statement.
“We have contributed significantly, both positively and productively, to Canada’s socioeconomic development, and we still do. We have enhanced Canada’s mosaic fabric with our long history of Hindu culture and tradition,” he remarked.
“Our land is being polluted by Khalistani extremists abusing our freedoms guaranteed by our Canadian Charter of Rights,” Arya continued.
Arya’s remarks are being made against the backdrop of strained relations between India and Canada following the June 2018 shooting death of Khalistan terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia.
Following Trudeau’s claims in September of last year about the “potential” participation of Indian operatives in Nijjar’s murder, ties between the two nations became severely strained. India has claimed that Canada’s allowance of pro-Khalistan elements operating from Canadian land with impunity is the primary point of contention between the two nations.
India has expressed its “deep concerns” to Canada on multiple occasions, and New Delhi anticipates that Ottawa will act decisively against those forces. Other political officials in the area also condemned the vandalism at the BAPS temple.
“We condemn the defacing of BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in #Edmonton with anti-India graffiti,” the Indian Consulate General in Vancouver wrote in a post on Tuesday. We have asked the Canadian authorities to look into the event and move quickly to apprehend those responsible.”
Nonetheless, the temple’s management body, the Bochasanwasi Aksharpurushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, has not responded as of yet.
