Dalit Voice – The Voice of the Persecuted Nationalities Denied Human Rights says):
They have buried deep the post-Ambedkarite movement – cultural, social these writers – who claim to be born out of Phule-Ambedkarite movement ….
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India is reviewing the lists of Sikhs abroad who were blacklisted for their anti-Indian activities, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao has said. Assuaging the Sikhs in Canada that her government was doing everything possible to heal the wounds of the 1984 riots. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has urged the community to put the past behind and move forward.
Manmohan Singh on a visit to Canada recently visited the memorial dedicated to the victims of the 1985 Air India plane explosion in Toronto.
Largest mass murder: Air India flight 182 named after Emperor Kanishka and operating on the Montreal- London-Delhi-Bombay route, was blown up on June 23, 1985 by a suitcase bomb at an altitude of 31,000 feet (9,400m) off Ireland’s Atlantic coast. In all, 329 people died in the disaster, including 280 Canadian nationals, mostly of Indian birth or descent, and 22 Indians. The incident represents the largest mass murder in modern Canadian history. Investigation and prosecution took almost 20 years and was the most expensive trial in Canadian history, costing nearly 130 million dollars.
Blue Star Operation: The 1984 anti-Sikh riots refer to four days of violence in North India following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her guards, who were Sikhs. Her assassination was seen as a consequence of “Operation Blue Star” of June 1984 when Central forces attacked the Golden Temple in Amritsar to flush out Sant Bhindranwale and Khalistan forces who had entrenched themselves in some areas of the Akal Takht in the Golden Temple complex. According to unconfirmed figures 3,000 Sikhs were killed during the disturbances and 50,000 were forced to flee their homes (ANI). Canada has the largest number of hard-liners who were blacklisted by New Delhi for their anti-Indian activities. Most of these people had taken asylum in Canada besides other Western countries during the peak of militancy in Punjab in the 1980s.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remarks came in the meeting which also included Indo-Canadian MP Sukh Dhaliwal, who recently introduced a motion in the Canadian parliament to declare the 1984 riots a genocide. (The Birth Pangs of Khalistan, DSA-1985, pp.40, photocopy available. Rs. 35)
