TRUDEAU SURROUNDS HIMSELF WITH KHALISTANIS

INTERVIEW - Ujjal Dosanjh, former Canadian minister

- MANDIRA NAYAR

UJJAL DEV DOSANJH was 18 when he left India for Canada. Thirty-five years later, he became the first person of Indian origin to become the premier of the Canadian province of British Columbia, serving from February 2000 to June 2001. He also served as the minister of health of Canada from 2004 to 2006. Dosanjh once publicly took on the Khalistanis and almost paid with his life. In 1985, he survived a major attack with nearly 100 stitches on his head. In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK, Dosanjh speaks about the crisis in India-Canada ties and the Khalistan issue. Edited excerpts:

Q/ How do you view the recent developments?

A/ It is tragic. A life has been lost and you have a country of 1.4 billion people being branded as rogue for having sent someone across international boundaries to kill a person. If that is true, that is not appropriate for a country to do. In Canada, the prime minister has made a statement, but has put out no evidence. It would have been preferable as a Canadian to look at some evidence and then decide for myself whether or not the prime minister is doing the right thing. We are being left in the dark. There is a larger issue of the relationship between India and Canada. It was in deep freeze, and now it will be a deeper freeze.