Ottawa, 8th May 2014 – Canada Post Corporation yesterday released a commemorative postal stamp on the incident in Ottawa on its 100th anniversary.
Canada’s Federal Employment and Multicultural Minister Jason Kenney and Canada Post CEO Deepak Chopra released the stamp at an impressive ceremony, owing to the efforts of the Komagata Maru Heritage Foundation, a Vancouver-based NGO.
Foundation president Harbhajan Gill said they had sent an application to the Canada Post two years ago for the stamp’s approval . “This is the best tribute to what our pioneers went through 100 years ago in Canada and then at Baj-baj Ghat in Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal,” he said.
He said the hall where the ceremony took place was jam-packed.
On the functioning of the foundation, he said that it was a non-profit, non-government organisation that worked towards creating awareness on the Komagata Maru incident, besides promoting the Punjabi culture through seminars and plays. Harbhajan said Punjab and Indian Governments, too, should honour the legends.
Harbhajan Kaur, granddaughter of Baba Gurdit Singh, who had hired Komagata Maru, said she had written several letters to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urging them to establish a memorial at Baba Gurdit Singh’s native village Sarhali in Amritsar. However, none had bothered to answer her letters.
Welcoming the initiative of Canada Post, she observed: “Here in India, we have spent money to raise a memorial at Baj-baj Ghat in West Bengal. Not a single rupee was provided by the government, but the West Bengal Government named a railway station after Komagata Maru. Our family has not been considered for the freedom fighters’ quota,” she said.
Dr Raghbir Kaur, Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall Committee general secretary, said the Punjab Government must take a lead in paying due respect to its legendary figures.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered an apology for the Komagata Maru incident in 2008, and the B.C. legislature passed a motion apologizing on behalf of the province the same year.
Source: Canada Press