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Canadian MP’s canceled Diwali gala now rescheduled, fuming Indian groups say they won’t attend

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Canadian MP’s canceled Diwali gala now rescheduled, fuming Indian groups say they won’t attend

New Delhi: Days after Canadian opposition leader Pierre Poilievre canceled a Diwali event scheduled to take place on Parliament Hill, a number of Indian groups have decided to skip a rescheduled celebration, while others said they were not invited to the November 5 event.

The event, which was to be hosted by Conservative MP Todd Doherty, was originally scheduled for October 30 but was canceled canceled without reason given amid the diplomatic standoff with India.

‘Diwali is already over. The spirit of Diwali was lost. Most temples do not participate in this event. I believe the cancellation of the Diwali event was the turning point. The Indo-Canadians are fed up with Canadian politicians ignoring their problems,” Shiv Bhasker, president of Overseas Friends of India Canada (OFIC), told ThePrint Sunday.

Bhasker added that OFIC, which has been involved in organizing the event with Doherty in recent years, has not been invited to the November 5 event. The OFIC were co-hosts for the original event scheduled for October 30, which was canceled by Poilievre’s office.

Canada’s Diwali celebrations on Parliament Hill were first organized by Deepak Obhrai, a former Conservative party member who died in 2019. Doherty is the latest MP to continue this tradition, last hosting the event in 2023, together with OFIC.

A number of political leaders have been present at the event in the past. In 2023, Poilievre was one of 540 foreign guests, along with India’s former High Commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, to attend the celebration, which was co-hosted by Doherty and the OFIC.

However, the Canadian opposition leader has attended several individual Diwali events hosted across the country at various temples, including in Scarborough, Ontario and a Tamil concert in Whitby.

The cancellation of the Oct. 30 celebrations left the Indian community in Canada feeling “betrayed and wrongly singled out,” Bhasker wrote to Poilievre on Oct. 29.

Bhasker had sought an apology from the Canadian opposition leader at the time, a demand that has still not been heeded.

Since OFIC’s letter last week, a number of community groups, including the Hindu Federation and the Voice of the Vedas Cultural Sabha, have written letters to Poilievre, underlining their disappointment at the cancellation of celebrations on Parliament Hill.

In November 2023, the Diwali celebration on Parliament Hill took place about six weeks after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first alleged that Indian government officials had links to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar – a Sikh separatist and Indian-designated terrorist – which caused by the cold. in diplomatic ties.

Nijjar was murdered outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia on June 18, 2023. India denied any involvement in the killing, calling the allegations “absurd and motivated” at the time. In October, the diplomatic dispute escalated, with the Canadian government asking India to lift the diplomatic immunity of six diplomats, including Verma, the then high commissioner.

New Delhi rejected the request, withdrew the diplomats and expelled six Canadian diplomats, including Acting High Commissioner Stewart Wheeler and Deputy High Commissioner Patrick Hebert.

Since then, the Canadian government has also alleged that Union Home Minister Amit Shah authorized surveillance and violence against Sikh separatists in Canada, through leaks to the US newspaper. The Washington Post.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has responded handed over a diplomatic note to a Canadian representative, who protested in the strongest terms against “absurd and baseless allegations” against Shah.

(Edited by Tony Rai)

Also read: India denounces Canada’s claim that Amit Shah is behind attacks on Sikh separatists. ‘Absurd, unfounded’