Jagmeet Singh: Canada's pro-Khalistani leader with troubled childhood

"Is he brown because he doesn't shower?" said a boy during recess. "I cannot seriously tell if he is a girl or a boy," said another. The boys were bullying a school-going Jagmeet Singh. The eldest son of Indian immigrant parents, Singh went on to become a lawyer, and then a politician. He is now the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), one of Canada's bigger parties. But behind his political armour is surviving racism, sexual abuse and living with an alcoholic father and guarding his siblings. To add to the mix, Jagmeet Singh is a Khalistani sympathiser, and that has gone a long way in determining his politics.

Jagmeet Singh is part of the Sikh community, which, though just 2% of Canada's population, has a massive influence on Canadian politics.

The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau survived as it was backed by Jagmeet's NDP. He withdrew support to disassociate the party from Trudea's Liberal Party ahead of the 2025 election, but backed the PM in his confrontation with India.

The Trudeau government "targeted" Indian officials as "persons of interest" in the investigation into the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Jagmeet Singh, the Burnbay South MP, spoke in favour of Trudeau.

"New Democrats are extremely worried about the information released by the RCMP commissioner today. Canadians, particularly the Sikh community in Canada have been stalked by fear, threats, harassment and violence," he said in an official statement on his X handle. The RCMP or Royal Canadian Mounted Police is investigating Nijjar's killing.

Jagmeet also sought sanctions on Indian diplomats who had been named as accused by the Trudeau government, and sought a ban on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Canada. His confused response to a query on the sanctions made journalists mock him.

This shouldn't come as a surprise as Jagmeet is known for his pro-Khalistani stance.

JAGMEET SINGH AND HIS SYMPATHIES WITH KHALISTAN

In 2013, India denied visa to Jagmeet Singh, who had joined Canadian politics just two years ago.

He was seeking a visa to visit Amritsar, the city that houses the Golden Temple, one of the holiest places for Sikhs.

Sources told The Globe and Mail that this was because of Singh's remarks about the Sikh riots of 1984. He asked that the word "genocide" be used.

He was accused by the then Indian government of his “insidious agenda of disturbing the social fabric of India and undermining the peace, harmony and territorial integrity of India”.

The NDP leader attended a pro-sovereignty seminar in 2016 with the co-founder of the British-based Sikh Youth Federation, who made clear demands for a "separate land for Sikhs".

This was the second time Singh was part of such an event.

In 2015, he attended a Khalistani rally where participants chanted "Khalistan, Khalistan", reported Canadian broadcaster CBC.

This rally featured large posters of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a Khalistani who was behind the siege of the Golden Temple in 1984.

In the 2015 event, Singh delivered a speech accusing India of attacks on Sikhs in 1984.

In 2017, Jagmeet Singh was responsible for passing a motion which acknowledged the 1984 Sikh riots in India as a “genocide”.

Two years later, when Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kasmir, was abrogated, Jagmeet Singh blamed the Indian government for human rights violations.

But this Canadian MP with a pro-Khalistan stance had a different life before his rise to politics.

JAGMEET SINGH'S ALCOHOLIC FATHER, TROUBLED CHILDHOOD

The Canadian MP was born to a well-off family to Harmeet Kaur and Jagtaran Dhaliwal in the Scarborough district of Toronto. His parents were from the Malwa region in Punjab. He was the eldest of three siblings.

He studied law at Western University and Osgoode Hall Law School and then practised as a defence lawyer in Brampton.

While growing up, Jagmeet always knew both his parents wanted to give him a good life.

His father, a psychiatrist, wanted the children to be confident and emphasised on their appearances to help them fit in, while his mother tried to ensure that the kids were happy from within.

In his memoir, Love and Courage, Jagmeet reveals why his family suffered.

"Alcohol made my dad volatile and unpredictable. Some people get tipsy and become more agreeable when they drink. Others turn inward, quiet and reflective. But not my dad. He was a predictably belligerent drunk," he writes.

His father started having "gripes about whatever wasn't meeting his expectations".

"The living room wasn’t tidy enough. His briefcase wasn’t where he left it. The car was parked poorly. The fridge was empty," Singh wrote.

But this was a more testing situation for his mother and the kids.

"My mom, especially, hated it—she, like most Sikhs, was against the use of intoxicants. My dad would never drink openly; he’d hide himself away. When he was done, he’d even hide his bottles in random places—in the washroom under the sink or behind the cleaning supplies in the laundry room cupboard," he wrote.

But beneath his dad's alcoholism, there was more.

"My dad felt the harshest judgement from patients who wondered aloud why a foreigner was looking after them. At the end of his days, all too eager to forget his frustrations, he drank heavily. Soon after we moved into the house in Villa Borghese, he built a bar for the basement," he wrote.

JAGMEET SINGH AND HIS SAVIOUR COMPLEX

Jagmeet soon decided that he would have to take charge and take care of his family.

He decided to learn taekwondo but even there he was sexually abused by his teacher.

In those years, he survived the sexual abuse and the alcoholic rage of his father.

But Jagmeet protected his younger brother and sister. That might have been the source of his saviour complex.

Better days came, when he was off to university to study law. At this time, Jagmeet and his brother became Sikh activists.

It was his brother who persuaded him to run for Parliament in the 2011 elections. He became the Brampton Member of Provincial Parliament.

In 2017, he became the head of the New Democratic Party. In 2021, Trudeau's Liberal Party was able to form a government with the support of Jagmeet Singh-led NDP. Jagmeet and his NDP face a big challenge in the 2025 election in which Trudeau's rival Pierre Poilievre is expected to make a clean sweep. Though backing Trudeau likely fits Jagmeet's pro-Khalistani politics, it is a tricky choice given that the fortunes of his party are at stake in 2025.