A float depicting the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was featured in a parade held in Canada’s Brampton during the “Nagar Kirtan” – an annual Sikh religious procession. The city of Brampton, Ontario, is home to a large Sikh community estimated at around 25%.On October 31, 1984, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in retaliation for Operation Blue Star, which she had ordered in June of that year.The Indian Army conducted Operation Blue Star between June 1 and June 10, 1984, at Amritsar’s Golden Temple complex—one of the holiest sites in Sikhism—to remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other pro-Khalistan extremists from the premises.Also Read | Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale: Sant or terrorist?During the early 1980s, Bhindranwale led a violent separatist movement advocating for a sovereign Sikh state of Khalistan in Punjab, India’s only Sikh-majority state.He was killed during the operation on June 6, 1984.In recent years, tableaus depicting or glorifying Indira Gandhi’s assassination have repeatedly appeared in Brampton and other Canadian cities.Reacting to a similar display in 2023, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said, “I think there is a bigger issue involved. Frankly, we are at a loss to understand other than the requirements of vote bank politics why anybody would do this. I think there is a larger underlying issue about the space which is given to separatists, to extremists, to people who advocate violence. I think it is not good for relationships, not good for Canada.”Canada is home to a significant Sikh population—about 2.1% as of 2021—many of whom are of Indian origin.
