India on Tuesday told Canada that a resolution passed in the Ontario provincial assembly terming the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as genocide was ‘unreal’ and ‘exaggerated’.
Earlier this month, the Ontario assembly in Canada passed a resolution terming the anti-Sikh riots in India as ‘genocide’.
The riots had broken out in the aftermath of assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 across several north Indian cities and more than 3,500 Sikhs lost their lives.
Today, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley at his official meeting with his Canadian counterpart, Harjit Singh Sajjan, raised the matter saying there was disquiet in India over the resolution and it was “unreal and exaggerated in it words”, sources in the Indian Defence Ministry said.
The Ministry of External Affairs had protested to Canada on terming the riots as ‘genocide’ and today the matter was taken up at the political level.
Sajjan reportedly told Jaitley that the Canadian government disassociates itself from the resolution passed in the provincial assembly, saying it does not reflect the view of the Canadian government.
Jaitley emphasised that as liberal democracies the resolution was not good for India and Canada, sources said, adding that there was no heated debate over the matter and it’s not as if that was only thing discussed.
A private members’ motion was moved by Harinder Malhi, the Member of provincial Parliament (equal to an MLA in India), terming the riots as ‘genocide’. She belongs to the same Liberal Party of Canada that is led by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Jaitley and Sajjan held delegation-level talks where it was discussed how the Canadian defence policy review was coming up and both sides agreed that defence should become a more important part of the relationship.
Canada produces parts and sub-systems of several weapons and military equipment manufactured in the US and Europe.
