Second Mahatma Gandhi statue vandalised in Canada in March

Canada has witnessed a surge in anti-India activities recently by Khalistan supporters who have vandalised some Hindu temples

Statues of Mahatma Gandhi are the latest targets of vandalism in Canada where the pro-Khalistani Sikhs have intensified a hate-campaign against India.

A statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Peace Square within the Burnaby Campus of the Simon Fraser University in Vancouver was vandalized by some miscreants in the latest incident of pro-Khalistani demonstrations.

“We strongly condemn [the] heinous crime of vandalizing the statue of the harbinger of peace, Mahatma Gandhiji, @SFU Burnaby campus. The Canadian authorities are urged to investigate the matter urgently and bring the perpetrators to justice swiftly,” the Consulate General of India in Vancouver posted on Twitter on Tuesday.

The incident took place just close on the heels of a similar incident of vandalism on another statue of Mahatma Gandhi near the city hall at Hamilton in Ontario on March 23 last.

The vandalism of the two statues of Mahatma Gandhi comes at a time when pro-Khalistani Sikhs in Canada and other western nations, like Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, have stepped up their campaign, particularly condemning the police crackdown on radical preacher Amritpal Singh and other secessionist elements in Punjab and other states of India.

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Ottawa’s envoy to New Delhi, Cameron Mackay, had on Saturday been summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), where the senior officials conveyed to him the “strong concerns” of India over “the actions of (the) separatist and extremist elements” against its diplomatic mission and the consulates in Canada.

Mackay had been the third foreign diplomat to be summoned to the MEA headquarters in New Delhi over the protests by pro-Khalistani Sikhs against the Government of India in the western nations.

A group of protestors – mostly Canadian Sikhs – had staged a demonstration in front of the Consulate General of India in Vancouver on Saturday. They had protested against the crackdown on radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his associates in Punjab in India. They had waved the flags of Khalistan and raised slogans demanding its secession from India. They had also raised slogans against India and the Government of India.

Earlier, a similar protest had been staged in front of the High Commission of India in Ottawa.

India’s High Commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, had avoided attending an event in the British Columbia province of the North American country after a violent protest by the Khalistanis on March 19. The protesters had also assaulted Indian-Canadian journalist Sameer Kaushal, who had gone to the venue to cover the visit of the High Commissioner of India to the province.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had issued an advisory on September 23 last year for the students and other citizens of India currently in Canada as well the ones planning to visit the North American country. It had advised the students to exercise “due caution and remain vigilant” in view of the “sharp increase” in the incidents of hate-crimes and anti-India activities in Canada.

The Modi government’s move had come after the vandalization of the Swaminarayan Temple and the Vishnu Temple at Toronto in Canada. Slogans like “Khalistan Zindabad” and “Hindustan Murdabad” had been spray-painted on the walls of these shrines.