A tableau depicting the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was displayed in a parade organized during the annual Sikh religious procession “Nagar Kirtan” in Brampton, Canada. The city of Brampton, Ontario, is home to a large Sikh community, estimated at around 25%.On 31 October 1984, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in retaliation for Operation Blue Star, which she had ordered in June that year.The Indian Army conducted Operation Blue Star in the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar – one of the holiest sites in Sikhism – between 1 June and 10 June 1984 to remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other pro-Khalistan extremists from the complex.Read this also Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale: Saint or terrorist?In the early 1980s, Bhindranwale led a violent separatist movement advocating Khalistan, a sovereign Sikh state, in Punjab, India’s only Sikh-majority state.He died during an operation on 6 June 1984.In recent years, floats depicting or glorifying the assassination of Indira Gandhi have appeared repeatedly in Brampton and other Canadian cities.Responding to a similar demonstration in 2023, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said, “I think there is a larger issue involved. Frankly, we are unable to understand why someone would do this, other than the requirements of vote bank politics. I think there is a larger underlying issue about the space that is given to separatists, extremists, people who advocate violence. I think it is not good for relationships, not good for Canada.”Canada is home to a significant Sikh population – approximately 2.1% as of 2021 – many of whom are of Indian origin.