Governor-General Simon, uphold the law

It was Punjab’s Kanwar Pal Singh Gill, who as DGP ensured that the police got over their fear of the K Group (a much more apt name for them than what they call themselves, Khalistanis) and ensured that Punjab returned to the tranquillity that the people wanted. By the close of the 1980s, the state was in the process of being torn apart by groups funded, trained and equipped from across the border. Every year saw an uptick in killings and a rise in fear, so much so that witnesses to atrocities committed by K Group were too terrified to testify against the few who were prosecuted. All that changed in subsequent years. In 1991, Gill was appointed the DGP and by 1995, when he retired from service, fear of the K Group within the local populace had all but vanished in the state. Given the memories of the horrors that were committed on the people of Punjab by the K Group since the 1980s, it is small wonder that the K Group adherents living in Canada and in a few other countries who came to India subsequently failed to mobilise enthusiasm amongst the people of the Punjab for a fresh round of terror and violence. Aware of such activity by a small section of overseas visitors from what ought to have been friendly democracies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ensured that their visas or OCI cards were revoked, although such a move inexplicably annoyed a section of the political community in Punjab. Given that the K Group are awash in funds, including from the narcotics trade, it is small wonder that some politicians in Punjab sought to ensure that their access to India and to Punjab in particular got restored. PM Modi refused to budge, aware of the security consequences of any such move. Since he took over his current job in 2014, a lot of effort has gone towards ensuring that Punjab remains free from violence. As a consequence, apart from sporadic actions by a few, overall the atmosphere in the state is peaceful, as is the situation in Kashmir as well.
Since the period when K.P.S. Gill was Punjab DGP, the effort to create a secessionist mind-set amongst a section of the people of the Punjab has failed to have any effect. Since then, the secessionist impulse has been kept going in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK, all of whose governments have failed to bring them to account for the killings and violence the K Group have helped facilitate. However, none of these governments have gone as far as that headed by Justin Trudeau in Canada, who has allowed free run to such elements, and indeed honoured them in Parliament and protected them from prosecution. Why he is doing so remains obscure, although several have pointed out that the Chinese Communist Party leadership is heavily invested in the Pakistan army. It is this institution which has created and nurtured not just the K Group but several other secessionist groups in India that are committed to terror and violence as their modus operandi. In the past, when external funding for such activities was relatively low, the narcotics trade was relied upon to provide resources for such terror operations, and such illicit trade has continued to fund such movements ever since. A crime requires both a “mens rea” (guilty mind) and an “actus reus” (guilty action). Those elements operating in Canada who are linked to the K Group have combined both speech and action, thereby making them liable for prosecution under the law. Since Prime Minister Trudeau refuses to protect the rule of law in Canada, it is time for Governor-General Mary Simon to step in to ensure that Canada returns to a situation where the Rule of Law prevails.