Canadian MP Sarai Denies Inviting Jaspal Atwal, Says Won’t Resign

Randeep S Sarai said that he will not become a “scapegoat.”

Canadian Member of Parliament (MP) Randeep S Sarai said that he was not a “scapegoat,” asserting that he “did not invite” pro-Khalistani leader Jaspal Atwal to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's reception dinner in Mumbai, on the latter’s week-long visit to India.

In an exclusive interview to local newspaper Surrey Now-Leader, the Liberal MP said he had no intention of stepping down from his job and was hoping to put Prime Minister Trudeau’s India tour fiasco behind him.

“All we did is forwarded anybody that wanted to attend that had expressed interest in the office. People were excited – people were calling in the office, there was about 25 or 30 names that came in from various different industries, and we forwarded those names,” Sarai said.

Atwal was invited to dine with Prime Minister Trudeau, during his visit to India in February, at an event hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to India Nadir Patel.

Canadian-Indian businessman Atwal was sentenced in Canada to 20 years in prison for a 1986 assassination attempt on an Indian politician, as part of a violent campaign to establish an independent Sikh state of Khalistan.

The MP clarified that he hadn’t invited Atwal.

“He’s a media personality; he’s associated with Media Waves, the radio, and he’s there for, around everywhere. We did go on his radio pre-election, kind of during the writ period time, afterwards I’ve been on it a couple of times, he’s been around socially in the community here in Surrey for years now,” he said.

I’ve seen him around but I don’t have anything beyond socially when we see him at media events or at public events, I don’t have any other relationship with him.

Canadian MP Randeep S Sarai

The much-asked question was, did nobody recognise Atwal’s name given his history?

“I was 11 years old and I’m the oldest in my staff, everyone else in there is in their early 20s,” Sarai explained. “We should have vetted better, we should have been more diligent but none of us, instead of doing that we were pretty preoccupied in organising myself, for myself to go to the visit, and I just forwarded the names that I received,” he said.

I take full responsibility, I’ve as you know stated that and I should have done better, I should have searched the names up and done my due diligence better.

Randeep S Sarai

Surrey Now-Leader reported that the circumstances around Atwal’s invitation was being investigated by the National Securities Service.

Trudeau has said he does not support Sikh extremists, despite appearing in several photographs with Atwal published by Canadian media – while New Delhi has rejected the conspiracy theory put forward by Trudeau’s top intelligence official. He said the MP would take complete responsibility for the action.

Sarai clearly said that he planned to stay the course as an MP despite calls for his resignation.

A big thing about being a Member of Parliament is recognising when you’ve made a mistake but continuing to work hard for your constituents and I promise to do that, and I have done that in the past, and I’ll continue doing that forward.

Randeep S Sarai

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