By IANS
Toronto : A new Indo-Canadian organisation fostering Hindu-Sikh unity in British Columbia province will hold its first event Sunday when it celebrates the 60th anniversary of India’s independence.
The Hindu-Sikh Unity Committee (HSUC), comprising six Hindu temples and 11 gurdwaras in Fraser Valley in the Lower Mainland area of British Columbia, will hold the event at the Vedic Hindu Temple in Surrey, the second largest city in the province.
This is the first major event being organised by the HSUC, which was formed two months ago and which, its founders say, will play a more active role in social and political issues affecting the Indo-Canadian community in the region.
HSUC secretary Parshotam Goel told the Vancouver Sun that his organisation represents the majority of Indo-Canadians in the region and will act as an effective counter to the small minority in the country that is advocating a separate Sikh homeland in India called Khalistan.
“They (the Khalistan advocates) are a very small segment of the population, but they are very vocal,” the Sun quoted Goel as saying.
“That’s why the media always hears them… That’s why we formed this committee two months ago.”
Committee chairperson Balwant Singh Gill said the need for the committee arose when pro-Khalistan newspapers in Surrey recently published an article calling for the destruction of a prominent Hindu temple in Amritsar because of a controversy involving its leader there.
“We thought if they are going to start demolishing Hindu temples there, who will protect them here?” asked Gill, who is also president of Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh temple.
“We hope to sit down with politicians and law enforcement agencies to tell them it is not acceptable to have such displays in a democratic country like Canada,” added Goel.
“It is like supporting the Ku Klux Klan… We want the law enforcement agencies and the government to do their part.”
Among the various programmes planned for Sunday are an Indian ex-servicemen’s parade and a march past by participants representing various states of India.
There will also be performances by artistes from various parts of India. The consul general of India in Vancouver will hoist the tricolour and read out a congratulatory speech and message from the Indian president.
The organisers expect prominent community leaders and politicians to take part in the event.
Both Goel and Gill said the vast majority within their community – whether they are Hindu or Sikh – want harmony and peace in Canada.
The new committee, according to Gill, also has the support of the 35-member North American Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, which represents moderate Sikhs across the continent.
“Hindus and Sikhs have to fight extremism together,” Gill told the Sun.
Around 22 percent of Surrey’s total population of 400,000 is of South Asian origin. Of this, 19.2 percent are Sikhs and 2.3 percent Hindus, according to the 2001 census of Canada.