enough-is-enough-india-must-tell-canada-firmly

The Liberal Party government in Canada has unleashed a venomous propaganda against the government of India and has been continuing it non-stop. So much so, recently the Canadian Deputy Foreign Minister went on record to suggest the involvement of country’s Home Minister Amit Shah in the killing of Hardeep Nijjer. This is outrageous and unacceptable.

 

Such brazen allegations are unprecedented particularly among the two democratic countries, which have otherwise been friendly with each other for a long time. So much has already been said and written about the “domestic political compulsions” of Canadian Prime Minister Justine Trudeau on why he built up the “anti-India” rhetoric to such a degree that any reconciliation between the two countries, till he remains in office, remains unthinkable. 

 

Any mature and seasoned leader will handle such a situation in a better way. Trudeau acted in a brazenly uncouth and undiplomatic manner, apparently getting influenced by a certain group of people who wear their pathological hatred towards India on their sleeves. So did his foreign ministry. This is a challenging diplomatic situation for the Canadian government. It was made complex thanks to the mishandling at the top most level.

 

Trudeau obviously has never faced any such diplomatic challenge ever. This one is of his own making though. Canada has always been like a vassal state of the United States, at times even being described as the “fifty-first” state of the US. It does not have any independent foreign or defence policy. Not only does the US come to its aid, it takes decisions on Canada's behalf. So much so, Canada is always assumed to go along with the US on anything and everything. Since right now there is a friendly Democratic President in the US, Canada could afford to take such a chance with a democratic country that the whole west, the US in particular, sees as a credible counterweight to China. 

 

Coming back to Nijjar killing, the initial findings by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police concluded that it was the outcome of one of the inter-gang rivalries, which are so common in Canada, particularly among the Punjabi community. The reasons are multiple and the Gurdwara politics is one of the main reasons for such rivalries, which at times ends in violence and killing as happened in Nijjer’s case. 

 

Nijjar had a continuously running feud with Ripudaman Singh Malik, another India-baiter and one of the masterminds of the Kanishka Bombing, the worst incident of “aviation terror disasters” prior to 9/11. Malik was killed in July 2022, in a similar fashion the way Nijjer was killed about a year later. Malik’s killing was attributed to Nijjar, a designated terrorist and head of the Khalistan Tiger Force. Malik had just a few months before his killing written a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi praising him for various things he had done for the Sikh community.

 

Naturally Malik’s killing provoked revenge and his supporters apparently got even with him. While Malik’s killers have confessed to his killing and pleaded guilty saying they were hired for the job, the Canadian government has not revealed who hired them to kill Malik, with fingers being pointed at Nijjar.

 

Given Nijjar’s anti-India background and also being a prominent supporter of the ‘Khalistan Referendum’, an idea of Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, a designated terrorist by government of India, his (Nijjar) killing was blamed by Khalistan supporters on “Indian agents”, although there was no proof of it.

 

Even today, the Canadian government has not produced any evidence to substantiate its allegations against India. That is why none of the ‘Five Eyes’ countries has supported Canadian allegations against India. The US and the United Kingdom have only expressed “token” support “urging” India to “cooperate” in the probe.

 

Trudeau jumped into the blame game against India, after Gurpatwant Pannu was alerted by the US intelligence agencies that there was a possible threat to his life from “Indian” agents. The threat was specific to Pannu. There was no link to the Nijjar case.

 

Since Pannu was very close to Nijjar, he (Pannu) influenced the “friendly” Trudeau government to raise a finger on the Indian government without having any proof. Trudeau, unmindful of the consequences, seized the opportunity and went public with his allegations. This endeared him to the pro-Khalistan section among the Sikh community living in Canada and not the entire Sikh community. A considerable section of the Sikh community does not support Khalistan.

 

Trudeau already enjoys the support of the pro-Khalistan Sikhs living in Canada. But then there is Jagmeet Singh, of the New Democratic Party (NDP), who is more radical and extremist. Being a Sikh himself, he carries more appeal among the pro-Khalistan community than Trudeau. Trudeau started feeling threatened as Jagmeet was now poaching into, what otherwise, was his “guaranteed” vote bank for him.

 

By raking up the Nijjar issue without any proof, Trudeau has managed to retain his grip over the pro-Khalistan sections of the Sikh community. But Trudeau has paid a heavy price for the country, by damaging diplomatic relations with a friendly and a democratic country like India.

 

His raw handling of situation is not appreciated by anyone anywhere. Trudeau was expecting to piggyback the American probe into the attempts to kill Gurpatwant Pannu. But that case is in no way linked with the Nijjar killing. Even in Pannu’s case, although the US government has arrested an Indian citizen, there is no proof of his having been deputed by any government agency or official.

 

Since Trudeau has taken a position, he cannot back out of it. In order to justify one lie, he and his government are telling lie after lie. A senior Canadian government official went on record that he had leaked the story of a high level Canadian delegation meeting and Indian delegation to the US newspaper Washington Post. This was apparently done to build up opinion against the government of India. Even that did not work for the Canadian Prime Minister.

 

Although the government of India has now come out with a strong response and summoned the Canadian charge de affairs over his government’s accusations against the union Home Minister Amit Shah, this is too little and too late.

 

The government of India must call the Canadian PM’s bluff. And this cannot be done at the level of the “official spokesperson” of the Ministry of External Affairs, although he is doing a great job.

 

The response must come from the highest level, like the Minister of External Affairs himself. India needs to tell Canada in no ambiguous terms that enough is enough and it cannot continue with its baseless insinuations against our country and our Home Minister. There should not only be a response, but retribution as well. If Canada has failed to maintain law and order, it cannot blame a country that is on the other end of the globe.

 

Interestingly, the Congress, principal opposition party of the country, has preferred to maintain a silence over the brazen and blatant vilification campaign by the Canadian government against the Indian government. The Congress has failed to live up to the role of the “principal opposition” party. Both the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, have maintained an intriguing silence on the matter.

 

This is despite the fact that the pro-Khalistani extremists displayed with pride Indira Gandhi’s “bullet ridden cutouts” with her bodyguards, who killed her, being glorified, during a ‘Nagar Kirtan’ in Ontario. 

 

Among the opposition parties, only the Communist Party of India-Marxist, otherwise a staunch critic of the government, came out with a strong statement against the anti-India activities being allowed and encouraged by the Canadian government.