Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has yet again muddied Canada’s ties with India by alleging the involvement of the Government of India in the killing of a declared terrorist Harpreet Singh Nijjar and accusing Indian diplomats, including the Indian High Commissioner, of being responsible. India’s response was prompt in calling it “preposterous imputations”. India’s action too was swift in declaring six Canadian diplomats persona non grata in retaliation to the Trudeau government alleging the Indian diplomats as “persons of interest” in the investigation of the case related to the killing of Nijjar.
The Justin Trudeau-led minority government in Canada seems hell-bent on damaging Canada’s cordial and cooperative ties with India by continuing to make wild allegations against the Government of India and to protect and promote the image of a declared Canadian Sikh terrorist and separatist leader — Nijjar.
Prime Minister Trudeau has certainly taken several steps to combat, contain, confine and punish alleged Islamic terrorists, but history will judge him as a leader who contributed a great deal towards sheltering, protecting and indirectly assisting several individuals designated by the Government of India as terrorists and who demand a separate independent Khalistan in place of the Indian state of Punjab.
RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) arrested Khalillulah Yousuf in Toronto last year for his alleged involvement in making and disseminating pro-Islamic State propaganda on social media for the purpose of recruiting and radicalising the youth. But the Canadian police would do nothing against individuals or groups who propagate anti-India separatism and organise a referendum on the creation of an independent Khalistan carved out of the Indian sovereign territory! The Prime Minister perhaps requires a lesson on international law. A referendum to create a separate state from within the Indian territory cannot be tenable under international law. Can and should freedom of speech and expression include professing on Canadian soil separatism in India?
In 2022, there were reports about the arrests of two Canadian women in Montreal after their arrival from a Syrian detention camp for allegedly having family ties with members of the Islamic State. But the Trudeau government would look the other way when pro-Khalistan Canadian Sikhs would repeatedly deface Hindu Temples in Canadian cities and terrorise the Hindu community.
The same year, the Canadian court sentenced Abdullahi Ahmed Abdullahi to 20 years of imprisonment for assisting six US and Canadian citizens to travel to Syria and join Islamic State and committing other crimes, including murder, for years. It is, of course, a very strong punishment that could have a demonstrable impact on other terrorists in the Canadian hit list. But neither the Canadian intelligence agencies nor the police would take any concrete action against those who publicly threaten to kill Indian diplomats! Trudeau hardly realises that the safety and security of resident foreign diplomats are the primary responsibility of the country hosting them.
Regrettably, the Trudeau government has taken no action with respect to India’s numerous requests with evidence for the extradition of 26 internationally designated Sikh terrorists. It is ironic that the Canadian government has closed its eyes to the perpetrators of the Air India Kanishka bombing where the majority of passengers killed happened to be Canadian citizens. These perpetrators are roaming freely, enjoying the Canadian “right to free movement”!
Why is the Trudeau government so scared of Islamic State and so helpful to Khalistani terrorists? Around five per cent of the Canadian population are Muslims. Canada has been at the forefront of the US-led global war on terrorism. It was part of NATO intervention in Afghanistan for about two decades. The Trudeau government perhaps keeps a watchful eye on the Muslim masses in the country and takes prompt action against any suspect or an information lead. On the contrary, the Trudeau government seeks to make political gains from a little above two per cent of its population who belong to the Sikh community. The Liberal Party led by Trudeau until recently formed a coalition government with the New Democratic Party led by a Khalistan sympathiser — Jagmeet Singh.
Recently, the NDP withdrew from the coalition government headed by Trudeau but keeps supporting it from outside. Consequently, Trudeau is now heading a minority government that can lose its power, if the Jagmeet Singh-led NDP supports a no-confidence motion in the lower house of the Canadian Parliament. There is a strong possibility that Trudeau has become almost a political puppet and the control centre is in the hands of a Khalistan supporter.
So influential the Khalistan lobby has become in Canadian politics that the Prime Minister of the country is at the mercy of this group to be able to hold on to power. This explains why Trudeau returned from Laos after attending the East Asia Summit and began to accuse Indian diplomats, including the reputed High Commissioner of India of being part of the efforts to kill Harmeet Singh Nijjar.
Blinded by his intense desire to hold on to the “crazy job”, as Trudeau once described his office, the Canadian Prime Minister has put at risk wide-ranging cooperative relations with a sovereign country. It is no wonder that Trudeau’s former Foreign Minister Marc Garneau once reportedly criticised Trudeau as an “ill-prepared leader who prioritises politics”. The way Trudeau is handling the country’s policy towards India demonstrates that he does not believe in “Canada First”, but his “Crazy Job First”.
The author is founder chairperson, Kalinga Institute of Indo-Pacific Studies, and formerly professor at JNU. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
Comments
0 comment