India Post News Service
TORONTO: It was a great moment in Indo-Canadian history, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper, personally apologized, here in Surrey for the 'Komagata Maru 1914', discrimination against the Gadar movement. Speaking to a crowd of about 8000 people in Surrey, British Columbia which has a larger Indian community, Harper expressed regret over the century old incident.
On behalf of Bhartiya Janta Party-Punjab he was invited to the Golden Temple, Amritsar, so we can thank him for his compassion, shown for the Indo-Canadians and their forefathers' The Komagata Maru sailed into Vancouver harbor on ay 23, 1914, with 376 people on board.
The passengers consisted of 340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims and 12 Hindus and all were British subjects. The dominion government did not permit passengers to disembark due to racist immigration laws and the vessel remained docked at the harbor for two months.
The ship was later sent back to India where the British India police shot dead many passengers in Calcutta, in an incident that became known as the Budge Budge incident. Once again Canada has shown the World the meaning of Freedom and Peace, in this Global Village.
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