Harper, India, and Air India Bombing, 1985: circa 2009.

with stephen harper building economic relations with india, and visiting some of india's memorable shrines and destinations i couldn't help but recall how india had visited canada years previously in 1985: when two flights were bombed over the pacific ocean killing over 300 people which to date has been canada's largest aviation terrorist act in history.

brian mulroney, then conservative party prime minister of canada, appologized to india for their sustained loss of life. he conveniently overlooked the immigrated indians of canada who had family, traditions and culture rooted in canada that also lost their canadian loved ones. 2006 saw an even greater atrocity when the canadian penal system found no one party culpbale of killing the 329 canadian citizens.

there are two points to remember about this coerced, even premature meeting between india and canada prior to the economic meeting being conducted by the two minority-leading harper and singh governments:

1)- although the canadian indian community still mourns the loss of their loved ones, they are also afflicted by the reiteration of their lack of identity and integration within canada. the appology that mulroney issued in 1985 linguistically divided the average canadian from the indo-canadian when he appologized to indians of india, not those within his governing nation, canada. indo-canadians were excluded from the canadian social fabric thereby distancing the terrorist act to the realm of an india.

2)- young indians born in canada after this terrorist act share a common, generic perception of the bombing. i am disturbed when i talk to sikh youth who say that the air india bombing who say that the assassination of indira gandhi was 'understandable and justified. after all, she did order the storming of the golden temple, the sikh community's holiest shrine'. (preface: the golden temple was stormed by indian military forces after sikh terrorist took its refuge. sikhs took retaliation by bombing a flight going to india,dominantly regarded as hindus and the perpetrators of the desecration of the golden temple.). indian youths are not talking amongst themselves nor to the grander canadian society about the discourse of canadian terrorism that shaped this country's national security protocol, airport procedures, and foreign relations 25 years ago.

distancing the analysis of the air india bombing or limiting it to a segment of the canadian society short changes the underlying impact of this terroist act on canada: it lends to premature judgements about national and international policy making institutions, exclusion of members within the canadian fabric, and a real undermining of the impact of this act on indo-canadian mental, emotional and psychological level .

young indo-canadians are falling pray to an indoctrination defining her assassination as just and inevitable. the social analysis of this terrorist act is reducing it to a one-dimentional analysis, and until canadians come together to talk about history making events in one collective arena the growing relationship between canada and india will not fully actualize.

until stephen harper can make amends with how the then canadian goverment publically handled this untimely encounter with india any future relations will remain incomplete and underdeveloped.