Iqbal Ramoowalia says...

[mann_kaum_layee_qurbaan]

Ok I have aquestion for the canadian sangat. Living in America i have always heard about how there are so many khalistanis in Canada. However, I always read about how some of our own people say that khalistanis are a minority in Canda and nobody supports them in the Sikh community. I don't trust the mainstream media on this stuff. Can the sangat tell me what the situation is like in Canada among Sikhs?

‘Khalistanis’ have been isolated in Canada: writer

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 3

Canada-based Iqbal Ramoowalia is a progressive writer of Punjabi and also a political activist. Besides half a dozen books on Punjabi poetry, Iqbal has also authored a novel in English, “The Death of a Passport”.

His second novel, “What the Judges won’t see,” which is under print in Canada and will be released next month, is based on the Kanishka plane tragedy involving the killing of 329 persons. It is the story of pain and agony of the families who lost their loved ones in the plane.

After doing MA, M.Phil, from the University of Waterloo, Iqbal has been teaching English in Peel District School Board, Brampton, an industrial suburb of Toronto. He has been observing the Sikh politics in Canada quite closely for the past three decades especially from the days when radical Sikh organisations, also called “Khalistanis”, became active in the main gurdwaras there.

“I have been opposing the radical Sikh politics and its protagonists. I have serious political differences with the Khalistani lobby in Canada and have been confronting them on the basis of my secular and progressive convictions”, says Iqbal.

Talking to TNS here today, he said the “Khalistanis” had been fighting a losing battle in Canada. They had been isolated in most of the cities there. They had, by and large, lost the support of Sikh community. “ They have a say in certain management committees of the Sikh religious places like the Dixie Gurdwara where they have been calling the shots for long”, he added.

“Sikhs in Canada were fully aware of the activities of Khalistanis and they do not give much weightage to them. There were Sikh leaders, who had been indulging in politics in the name of Khalistan but most of them had now become political non-entities”, he added.

Asked about the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh’s visit to Dixie Gurdwara, Iqbal said he failed to understand that how the Khalistani lobby manipulated the Chief Minister’s visit to that gurdwara. “The CM’s visit certainly proved a disappointment for those NRIs who have been fighting against Khalistanis in Canada”, he added.

Even the overseas Congress leaders, who had been waging battle against Khalistanis in Canada, were surprised to see that Khalistanis leaders like Sukhminder Singh Hansra had managed to be around the Chief Minister during his visit to Dixie Gurdwara, he said. “Had the CM consulted those who knew the Sikh politics in Canada, he would not have perhaps faced the controversy, he was facing now”, said Iqbal.

He said the reality was that most of the Khalistanis were on the blacklist of the Indian Government. They had not visited their native place — Punjab — for the past 25 years. They were desperate to come here.” They wanted the support of politicians like Capt Amarinder Singh to get their names removed from the black list”, he added.

“I urge the Indian Government to allow them all to visit Punjab so that they could see themselves that there was no talk of Khalistan anywhere in Punjab. The visit would remove their many misconceptions and presumptions”, he added.

Asked about the NRI politicians in Canada, Iqbal said many of them were introducing the Indian political culture in the Canadian politics. “ All political ills, including the dubious enrollment of party members have been injected by some of the NRIs in Canadian politics,” he added.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050704/punjab1.htm#10

Or is this guy just like a Kushwant Singh of Canada...?

[cantlogin]

It really is split. But for those supporters, you can't be Khalistani if you are not willing to do anything beyond making/wearing BK or ISYF vests.

[jagjit_waheguru]

waheguru ji ke khalsa, waheguru ji ke fateh

Pyare jio, I think this person should also write about the tragedy behind Operation Blue Star and delhi roits and 20 years in genocide in Punjab. Coupled with his book on Air India. it will then put into perspective the whole tragedy of them 20 years.

Otherwise it does seem he is only using the Air India tragedy to push his own agenda anti-khalistani agenda.

waheguru ji ke khalsa, waheguru ji ke fateh

[gupt_paapi]

It really is split. But for those supporters, you can't be Khalistani if you are not willing to do anything beyond making/wearing BK or ISYF vests.

106793[/snapback]

:doh: