Toronto, Dec 14 (IANS) As the Canadian government discusses ex-gratia compensation with the families of the Air India Kanishka bombing victims, the man who started this fight for justice says that the victims are not after money.
‘What is more important is the security (of passengers) in the future. That was the purpose of our fight to have the government to investigate why this thing happened and then take corrective steps,’ Bal Gupta, who formed the Air India Victims Families’ Association after losing his wife in the bombing, told IANS.
His wife was among 329 passengers who perished near the Irish coast June 23, 1985, when the Air India Kanishka Flight 182 from Toronto to Delhi was brought down a bomb planted by pro-Khalistan extremists to avenge the Indian Army action at Amritsar’s Golden Temple to flush out militants.
In his report submitted to the Canadian government in June, former Canadian chief justice John Major, who headed a public inquiry commission into the Kanishka bombing, has recommended ex-gratia payment for the victim families alongside major steps to overhaul security systems to avert such tragedies in the future.
Though all victim families got compensation – some even up to one million dollars – in the early 1990s, the commission has recommended an ex-gratia payment for these families as a token gesture.
But this has led to headaches for the government as some people are making huge amounts of compensation, though initially it was suggested to give $25,000 to each family.
‘That’s not the issue. All the families who began the fight for the setting up of the commission never raised the issue of money. But now some other families have raised this issue. I feel the major recommendations of the inquiry are being overtaken by the issue of compensation,’ said Gupta, who left no unturned to force the Canadian government to order the inquiry.
Gupta said he was thankful that the inquiry commission has recommended to the government to give an ex-gratia compensation to the families.
‘But our key demand was never money. Our demand was how to secure the future so that people don’t become victims of terrorist acts again.
‘Now if some people want to focus on the ex-gratia, that is fair neither to the inquiry panel nor to the families who initiated the fight for correcting Canadian systems,’ Gupta said.
Canadian immigration and multiculturalism minister Jason Kenney is in talks with the victim families to arrive at an ex-gratia amount to satisfy them.
(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at gurmukh.s@ians.in)
