carney-s-invite-to-modi-may-thaw-frosty-indo-canadian-relations

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has taken a wise and sagacious step to revive Indo-Canadian relations, making a bold move by personally calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi and inviting him to the G-7 Summit.

 

Interestingly, the pro-Khalistan and anti-India elements in Canada are not the only ones to be disappointed. The principal opposition party in India, the Congress, will be equally dejected as it was till yesterday celebrating that Modi had not been invited. The celebrations proved quite short-lived for the party.

 

Although initially the election of Mark Carney as the Prime Minister of Canada had raised hopes of thaw in the frosty relations between India and Canada, for a while, recently, it looked like that the new Canadian Prime Minister would be carrying forward the policy of his predecessor, Justine Trudeau, towards India, particularly after Canada took time to invite Prime Minister Modi for the G-7 Summit. The delay in inviting the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the G-7 Summit, which is being held in Canada, was construed like the policy statement of the Canadian government. India has regularly been invited to the G-7 Summit for the reason that it is emerging as a strong economy, globally at fourth place. Modi has continuously attended the last six summits.

 

While the pro-Khalistani and anti-India elements in Canada celebrated, what they assumed was refusal to invite Modi, in India, interestingly, even the Congress was feeling happy about it. Congress leaders and spokespersons from Jairam Ramesh to Supriya Shrinate were not only highlighting it, they were sort of celebrating it and blaming it on the External Affairs Minister. The Congress took an official position that it was the diplomatic failure of the government of India that Canada did not invite PM Modi to the G-7 Summit. The party conveniently ignored the anti-India developments taking place in Canada that led to the diplomatic standoff.

 

In the obsessive pursuit to target Prime Minister Modi and blame him for everything, the same way the BJP has been blaming Pandit Nehru for everything that has gone wrong in India, the (Congress) party held the government responsible for it. The Congress did not realise that the relations between the two countries were strained because of the anti-India activities being carried out on Canadian soil. The Congress did not even condemn the parading of floats of slain Prime Minister Ms Indira Gandhi with her assassins pointing guns at her, during the Khalsa parade in Toronto last year.

 

If the Indo-Canadian diplomatic relations got strained, it was because Trudeau pandered to the extremist, radical and separatist elements working round-the-clock against India. Trudeau also blamed India for the murder of pro-Khalistan activist Hardeep Singh Nijjer without providing any evidence. The Canadian authorities have not provided any evidence even till now, when about two years have already passed since Trudeau levelled these allegations.

 

The situation reached such an extreme that the Government of India withdrew its High Commissioner from Ottawa after he was named as a “person of interest” in the murder of Nijjer, last year. Thanks to Trudeau, India and Canada have lowered down their diplomatic relations with none of them being represented by the High Commissioners.

 

India and Canada had otherwise enjoyed very good relations and had never withdrawn their High Commissioners even after Canada refused to extradite terrorists, who would hide there during militancy in Punjab during the 1980s after committing various killings.

 

When Carney replaced Trudeau there was fresh hope that the ice would be broken and there would be a thaw. Finally that moment appears to have arrived after Carney personally called Modi to invite him for the G-7 Summit. After calling Modi, Carney wrote on ‘X’, “I spoke with @NarendraModi today on the longstanding relationship between Canada and India, including deep people-to-people ties and significant commercial links. Importantly, we agreed to continued law enforcement dialogue and discussions addressing security concerns”.

 

Prime Minister Modi also responded in the same measure, “Glad to receive a call from Prime Minister @MarkJCarney of Canada. Congratulated him on his recent election victory and thanked him for the invitation to the G7 Summit in Kananaskis later this month. As vibrant democracies bound by deep people-to-people ties, India and Canada will work together with renewed vigour, guided by mutual respect and shared interests. Look forward to our meeting at the Summit”.

 

As both the Prime Ministers have mentioned, India and Canada have a lot of shared interests, both being strong and powerful democracies. Both the countries have stakes in each other’s welfare and well-being, as there is a huge Indian diaspora settled in Canada.

 

Carney’s positive approach towards India will definitely discourage the anti-India elements in that country—that they cannot take the Canadian freedom for granted to target and malign India. So much so that some of the extremist elements like Gurpatwant Singh Pannu have even threatened the Hindu population living in Canada. While the Trudeau administration always turned a blind eye to all these activities purely for electoral reasons, Carney may hopefully put some breaks on these.

 

Last but not the least, with not-so-hostile administration in place in Canada, the government of India should use its good offices to reach out to the powerful and influential Sikh diaspora who are holding positions of power in the government and also in the opposition. Punjab and India have moved far ahead since the dark days of the 1980s. They are no longer the same. A large section of the diaspora is still fixated in that era and that is the main reason for the strong hostility towards India. This perception needs to be corrected and it can surely be corrected in due course of time with sincere efforts from all stakeholders.