A report in a Canadian news outlet ‘Global News’ claimed that Indian consular officials have denied visas to individuals involved with the Khalistani extremist movement.
The report invoked strong reactions from social media users as well as experts, while the latter rejected it as baseless.
The Global News report took responses from several Sikh Canadians who reportedly sought Indian visas to visit family and for other work in the country.
The interviewees claimed that consular officials denied granting them visas unless they denounced their support for separatism and owed allegiance to India.
These claims could not be independently verified by News Arena India.
India-Canada ties remain strained after Ottawa accused New Delhi of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil. However, they have not been able to provide evidence for the same.
Bikramjit Singh Sandhar, a Canadian Sikh, spoke to Global News that he was trying to visit his ailing grandfather in India when he found out that his visa had been rejected by consular officials who told him that his application could not be processed because of anti-India statements he made at the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Surrey, B.C.
He was accused of talking about the Khalistani extremist movement at the place of worship.
Sandhar reportedly also received a letter asking him to renounce his allegiance to the Khalistani movement and profess his “deep respect” for India in exchange for a visa.
However, proof of such a letter was not found so far.
“They are trying to control what you are allowed to do, and not allowed to do,” said Sandhar, who was part of the same Gurudwara that Nijjar was a member of.
“They’re trying to influence all that, just because they have something that you need to do, because your roots, everything else, your land and everything is in India, and you gotta go there," he added.
Sandhar’s story was supported by another individual who said that his visa was rejected similarly.
Calling it a "wild story", popular Canadian political expert Daniel Bordman took a sarcastic dig at the indignation of the pro-Khalistani Sikhs, saying he was "baffled" by the concept of a country having "control of the people they let through their borders".
"Can you believe that India dared to require a man who ran a temple with pictures all over it praising mass murdering terrorists as heroes and a giant billboard calling to assassinate Indian government officials outside to fill out a form denouncing terrorism before allowing him to enter India? A form!!! He could have gotten carpal tunnel syndrome! Their cruelty has no limits," Bordman said.
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