Sikhs in Canada to benefit if government prunes its blacklist

NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi’s visit to Canada next month — first standalone bilateral trip to the North American country by an Indian PM in 41 years — may bring good news for the huge Sikh Community there, members of whom are blacklisted and barred from entering India on alleged charges of abetting terrorism or being member of insurgent group in Punjab.

An exercise has been launched by the Union government to prune the blacklisted persons barred from entering India and many of them are based in Canada, official sources told ET.

The list contain names from the Sikh community who have not been involved in terrorism, but took refuge in Canada during the height of insurgency out of fear that they could be persecuted at the height of insurgency in Punjab, sources said, adding, the effort is on to segregate the genuine persons from the terrorists or terror masterminds in the list.

Some members of the Sikh community who also took the opportunity to migrate to Canada under the shadow of insurgency were also put in that blacklist, sources indicated. The list is a mix of offenders as well as non-offenders.

Modi’s three-day trip to Canada from April 14-16 includes a large Indian community programme (similar to Madison Square) in Toronto besides smaller event at Vancouver. Some indication or announcement of the pruning of blacklist for the Indian community in Canada could come during the PM trip, sources indicated.

Indo-Canadians number around over one million. Out of this Canadian Sikhs number roughly 468,674 people and account for 1.40% of the country’s population. Many Sikhs also came to Canada after the siege in Golden Temple, and the following Anti-Sikh riots in 1984 in search for a new life and to escape persecution by the Indian Government.

"It has been long felt that the list of Indians barred from entering India should be pruned and only those involved in the acts of insurgency and terrorism or abetting terror should continue in the list," an official said.