SAMAJ WEEKLY, UK-
-Vidya Bhushan Rawat
India Canada ties have reached to a new low at an unprecedented level but it seems both the governments are using it to suit their domestic constituencies. There is no doubt that Canada is home to numerous anti Indian elements without any stern action taken by the government. Remember, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31st, 1984, many of these secessionist organisations celebrated and issued further threat from the soil of Canada as well as Britain but some how, the British realized that this would not help in their relationship with India and hence they controlled such elements but Canada unfortunately did nothing in this regard. It is reported that Indian government had sought extraditions of 23 wanted criminals as per Indian law, living in Canada but most of them have not been taken seriously by the government which claim that all of them have no track record of criminality in their country.
The current crisis in the India Canada relation actually has the history of Khalistan elements carrying anti India propaganda from Canada. Rather than taking any action against these elements, Canada not only shelter them but took no action against those who led violent protest in front of the Indian High Commission. It is a well-known fact that those responsible for bombing Air India Flight 182 on June 23rd, 1985 which killed 329 passengers on board including 268 Canadian citizens, 27 British and 24 Indian nationals.
In the name of ‘political dissent’ and ‘human rights’ Canada has been extremely soft on anti-India propaganda in its soil. Government of India too failed handle the farmers movement and for their domestic political compulsion brought the issue of Khalistan and linked it with the movement. Despite huge numbers of Indian living in Canada, it would be preposterous to suggest that there is a big support for the Khalistan movement in Canada and Sikhs are part of it. We need to understand that no movement can succeed unless it captures the mood of the people due to growing failure of the governance structure. In Punjab, the rightful demands of farmers were sought to be targeted by the Hindutva experts as supporter of the Khalistan movement. Unfortunately, it only helped those elements in Canada who were isolated and waiting for a revival. The Canadian government felt that reflected the Sikh view point and hence did not bother to look at the concerns of India.
This issue will have wider ramification as western world particularly US, UK, Australia and New Zealand will always side with Canada due to their historic relationship. Canada has accused government of India or Indian officials in engaging with criminal activities against their citizens while Indian government has openly accused Canada and its government of sheltering and encouraging pro Khalistan groups. Since Canada has a substantial number of Sikhs as its citizen, their political strength is important for any domestic party to come to power in Canada and that is the reason why most of the political parties in Canada have not been vocal about their anti Indian propaganda. Punjab is living in peace and prosperity. Sikhs have dedicated their lives for the freedom of India and after independence they are among those sacrificed their lives on the border. There can not be any idea which suggest Sikhs are against the idea of India but there is an attempt being made outside India to revive the whole issue of Khalistan and suggest that it has got big support in Punjab. It must be credited to brave Sikh farmers of Punjab who showed absolute maturity in handling the antipathy of the government and the slanderous campaign launched by BJP, Hindutva experts who tried to link the farmers movement with Khalistan supporters in Canada.
Canada expelled India’s High Commissioner and other important officials of the High Commission followed by the same response by the Indian government. Actually, Justin Trudeau is peeved at the response by the government of India. He would have thought that his actions would compel India to ignore the issues raised by India. Frankly speaking, India has been the victim of terror violence and it is important that western world understand that. You can not have double standard for your ‘concern’ on ‘human rights’ and ‘democracy’. We all have seen the hypocrisy of the Western world in allowing Isreal to carry out a genocide in Gaza, In the name of ‘right to defend’, the West became part of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Canada shamelessly is part of every such Western hypocrisy. It is also irony that Indian government too stands more with Israel than with the Palestinian people which it supported historically.
Canada government blamed India for trying to use the diplomatic positions in the High Commission to spy their ‘citizens’ and pass the information to Lawrence Bishnoi gang to target specific individuals who are seen an ‘opponent’ of the government. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a press conference, “We will never tolerate the involvement of a foreign government threatening and killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil”. He alleged that diplomats were collecting information about Canadians and passing it on to organized crime to attack Canadians, and said “India has made a monumental mistake.”
It might have been possible that government of India or its intelligence were gathering information about anti Indian groups in western world but the fact is that they are the biggest ‘asset’ of those countries. Western colonialism grew up and got justified because of such ‘assets’ everywhere. Anyone dissenting with their mode of operation became a terrorist or persona non grata.
The Prime Minister had conveyed his government’s strong concerns about Sikh separatist protests in Canada to Prime Minister Trudeau on the sidelines of a G20 summit in New Delhi but Canada’s position has been that it does not stop its citizens from having different ideologies and political position as long as they do not indulge in any kind of violent activities. This is where we have issues with western liberal democracies which have a ready made defence of creating anarchy in other countries in the name of democracy and human rights but if those countries respond then you are in their hitlists.
While Indian authorities have ignored Canada and Narendra Modi has remained silent on the issue allowing only MEA officials to respond to the crisis though on the Canadian side Justin Trudeau has been batting on the front foot. Indian media and cheerleaders of the Hindutva actually felt that Canada is not so important in its scheme of things but they somewhere miscalculated the fact that Canada was not alone in this entire exercise of counter spying and UK, US, Australia and New-Zealand are part of the five Eyes network. All share their intelligence and have common strategies on most of the issues as reflected in the American state department official on November 23, 2023, statement that U.S. authorities thwarted a plot to kill Pannun in the United States and issued a warning to India over concerns the New Delhi government was involved. The common link was Sikh separatist groups in these countries being declared terrorist by Indian government but respected citizens of USA and Canada.
Now, FBI has put Vikas Yadav, the former officer of RAW deputed in United State , now retired, in its most wanted list. ‘The Justice Department today announced the filing of murder-for-hire and money laundering charges against Indian government employee, Vikash Yadav, 39, also known as Vikas, and Amanat, in connection with his role in directing a foiled plot to assassinate a U.S. citizen in New York City. Yadav is charged in a second superseding indictment unsealed today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Yadav’s alleged co-conspirator, Nikhil Gupta, 53, was previously charged and extradited to the United States on the charges contained in the first superseding indictment.’
The department further said that it ‘will not tolerate attempts to target and endanger Americans and to undermine the rights to which every U.S. citizen is entitled.” A language often used by the Western World when dealing with such issues. These are just accusations and not conviction. However, it is for the first time that an Indian government official has been named as most wanted by any foreign government. Secondly, it gives chances to India’s enemies to target her. It is a fact that the only trusted friend in this regard remain Russia which has outrightly rejected and where media and public opinion is openly in India’s favor.
Narendra Modi government and its advisors are now on a difficult pitch. Indian government has been deliberately playing ‘equ-distance’ card with Russia. While China, Iran, North Korea, Hungary, Cuba, Vietnam, are moving towards a new alignment, India remain the odd at the moment because it wants to ‘maintain’ its relationship with both. The problem is that Russia remained committed to India even in such cases but it definitely cant be termed as the victory of India’s foreign policy when the prime minister goes to meet Vladmir Zelenskyy in his effort to look neutral as that definitely hurt Russians but they did not express it in public though President Putin’s meeting with Ajit Doval was termed as Russian’s anger against India which was not so as most of meetings of the high ranking officials with President Putin are organized in that way only.
Anyway, it is important to understand the western politics and interventions in India. It may be a mishandling of the Indian government but western world has always used this double standard to coerce governments to fulfil their demands. India is growing and so are our troubles too. A sectarian leadership can’t really understand the complexities of the world because it is using the foreign policy matters to enhance its ‘political’ narrative of being a ‘vishwaguru’. The message they want to give to their ‘bhakts’ is that ‘we can do a tit for tat for Canada’ but what about the United States and do you think that you can do anything to Canada and all other Western world remain silent. The MEA must not fall in trap to satisfy the need of the domestic constituencies but protect its officials and not ask them anything deemed illegal in those countries.
Will these incidents increase India’s global isolation? Actually, these are pressure tactics of the Western world to reduce India’s closeness to Russia. A large number of members of the Indian diaspora that support the rabid Hindutva in India and speak against minority rights, playing mayhem at the social media, is actually sitting in these western countries. Let us see how they react to the situation arising out of serious allegation on the officials of government of India. The encouragement to these social media trolls with little knowledge to play role of hitman by targeting the western leaders will be extremely counterproductive. The government must understand that these social media handles can only influence the ignorant bhaktas at the galli-muhalla and will only be detrimental to our national interest. The facts are now clear that India’s Hindutva troll army operates from number of Western countries and they have vitiated the atmosphere on social media. India could have responded to various allegation if back home the politicians of the ruling party had shown conviction of courage and dedication to rule of law which is the weakest point of the ruling dispensation. They have little trust in rule of law and they feel that the line of rule of law actually begin where they would like it to be.
The mishandling of the Bangladesh issue, the increasing distrust with Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka has already hurt India internationally. The massive anti-Muslim propaganda and biases in the administration being encouraged by various state governments under the BJP will only create troubles for India in dealing with various countries. It is important, Ministry of External Affairs actually circulate an advisory for political leaders of the ruling party to not to encourage such polarization in India. Many in the Indian establishment see Israel as a role model which is definitely an overestimation of that country’s strength without taking into account that Israel cant run for a single day if US backing is not there. It is an enclave of the United States and Britain. Hindutva’s troll army is looking as Israel with great ‘expectation’ and is ‘celebrating’ every extrajudicial killing in the Palestinian land. Unlike other BRICS countries who stand for the rights of the Palestinian, India’s media, opinion makers influenced by the toxic Hindutva propaganda glorifying the killings and looking down contemptuously to the freedom movement of the Palestinian people ignoring the historical facts that India has been among the first country to have recognized the rights of Palestinian people to have their own state. Globally, most of the nations agree to a two-nation solution to the current conflict but Indian trolls have targeted all those who stood by the Palestine. Even during the possible Iran Israel conflict, these trolls are anxiously waiting Isreal to ‘demolish’ Iran again ignoring the historical fact that Iran as well as Iraq under Saddam Hussain were strong supporters of India. For the Hindutva ideologue the world revolves around Hindus-Muslim binary and nothing beyond. The folly of this thinking is that Muslims everywhere have the same political thinking and ideology and are against Hindus hence all Hindus need to unite against them because they are a threat. This is far removed from the geo politics that ethnic, regional issues are important and religion is not the sole criteria for the conflict world over but there different issues. Indian leadership at the moment must understand that the India has huge respect world over for its diversity and multiculturalism where everyone got an equal opportunity irrespective his religious identity. Indian leadership can learn a few lessons from Russia, China and even United States and other western world as you wont find them speaking in sectarian language spreading fear and hatred. For, India to be a global player, it will have to shed the sectarian agenda and speak up as moral power so that nobody can put a finger on us. Indian government need to defend its officials because none of them could work without the orders of the higher ups. Americans and Canadians will never extradite people who are accused as per our law but they will compel India to extradite Vikas Yadav for his ‘alleged crime’. The thing is without his official status, Vikas Yadav is nothing. He must have been working under some order. Who is that person and he or she need to take his or her responsibility. India has every right to protect its interests but Indian political leadership need to take responsibility for the actions of its High Commissions and Embassies.
Finally, nobody can deny this fact that all this is happening at the time when Russia is organizing the BRICS summit at Kazan and more than 35 heads of states are scheduled to participate and reach to a decision which will have far reaching impact internationally. West wanted to isolate Russia but ended up damaging themselves. The current crisis seems to emerge from India’s strong relationship with Russia but increasing pressure from the West on India will only strengthen Russia India friendship which we saw in the 1970s, during the period of Mrs. Indira Gandhi but all depend upon how this government respond to the American Pressure now. We will only be able to know about the intents of the government in the coming days whether it give them ‘more business’ or ‘dissociate’ from the acts of the official in Canada as well as US or reject their accusations.
