By Azad K Kaushik
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s weeklong adventure in India, that began with the impressive civilizational Sanskrit greeting ‘Namaste’, was supposed to be a memorable one given India’s cultural ethos of ‘Atithi Devobhava’. Prime Minister Trudeau, seemingly a genuine and charming person travelled to India with his family to make it a culturally enriching experience, apart from the prime ministerial business.
This is not to speak of shared Canadian and Indian values, such as, pluralism, tolerance, belief in democratic system and rule of law, that make Canada and India, both commonwealth countries, a natural ally. Add to this, 1.4 million strong Canadians of Indian origin, commonly referred as Indo-Canadians, with strong cultural and economic links with India who should alone be a cause for bonhomie between Canada and India.
Yet, trade between Canada and India amounts to only $8.4 billionl. Canada imports pearls, organic chemicals, pharmaceutical products, textiles, bicycles and motorcycles from India. India imports vegetables, paper, fertilizers, wood pulp, iron and steel and precious stones from Canada. India is interested in civil nuclear cooperation, space, defense, energy and education where Canada has an edge.
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s 1996 mission to New delhi was affected by India going nuclear in 1998 that led Canada to recall even its high commissioner. While the freeze in Canada-India relations can be traced to peaceful nuclear explosion in 1974 but it became redundant subsequent to India becoming nuclear power in 1998 to protect itself from its troubled neighbourhood and history of invasions through the centuries.
A globalized free trade offered new opportunities necessitating both the countries to get out of the time wrap and move forward. In 2012, Prime Minister Harper visited India and threw open the doors to Canadian business to triple two-way trade from $5 billion a year to $15 billion by 2015, with an eventual free trade deal. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a bilateral visit to Canada in 2015 after a gap of 42 years that brought life to Canada-India relations.
The nuclear cooperation agreement between Canada and India, a symbol of cordialization of relations, permitted Canada once again to sell 7 million pounds of uranium, worth quarter of a billion dollars, after a gap of 40 years. This was the beginning of a new chapter in Canada-India relations, influenced by the strong and vibrant Indo-Canadian community, built upon mutual trust and strategic interests.
Unfortunately, PM Trudeau’s recent maiden visit to India, not without reason though, was characterized as, “tragicomic, total disaster, slow moving train wreck, fiasco, bad to worse, sabotaged trip, disastrous India adventure, snubbed by Indian PM, clouded in controversies” etc. etc. An opportunity to move forward from the stage set by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, an effort of many years, was just lost in a week that again froze back in time making Canada-India friendship a mirage.
While the world remained focused on the wedding attire, Bollywood, Bhangra dance and cultural pretensions of Trudeau family in India, it hoodwinked the actual focus of the visit at competitive ethnic-centered divisive vote bank politics in preparation for 2019 elections at the cost of foreign policy with a friendly country. The India photo-ops would make perfect election banners in 2019, though without substance. This was intended to please Sikh (454,000 population) voters at home who generally vote en masse for the liberal party. But it ignored other Indo-Canadians (population over 800,000) who usually vote by their conscience, an important segment that can not be ignored either. Prior to this, the Ontario legislature, out of sheer ignorance, passed a private member’s motion 46 recognizing 1984 anti-Sikh riots as ‘genocide’ where a small number of law-makers voted, highlighting the fragility of the Canadian democratic system.
MPP Harinder Malhi who moved the motion 46 after 33 years was elevated to cabinet minister, despite continued opposition by the Indo-Canadian community, clearly indicating where the Liberal party’s election interests lay. It did not matter if the passed motion flew in the face of the truth and reconciliation efforts made in India. As a matter of fact, it was unfortunately a pogrom and not ‘genocide’ (More at: www.sikhriots1984facts.com/hello-world/) for which Indo-Canadians created a harmony committee to stop divisive politics affecting brotherhood within the diverse community.
The small number of emboldened fringe extremist elements, called Khalistanis associated with organizations like World Sikh Organization, who control some Gurudwaras in Canada barred Indian diplomats, elected officials and anyone in Canada who opposed ‘Sikh Nation’, called Khalistan’.
A move in this direction is reminiscent of the first act of terrorism in 1985, Air India Flight 182 bombing that took 329 lives off the coast of Ireland, originating from the Canadian soil. Also, a second bomb-laden suitcase, destined for another Air India flight, exploded pre-maturely and killed two baggage handlers at Tokyo’s Narita airport. The only person, Inderjit Singh Reyat, convicted in the 1985 Air India bombing, Canada’s worst mass murder, was released whose 2013 psychologist’s assessment indicated that he presented a “relatively high risk” for future group-based violence and showed “a lack of true empathy and remorse.” Professor André Gerolymatos, Simon Fraser University, summed up the release stating, “It also sends a bad message out there to potential terrorists, that even when you’re caught, you can keep your mouth shut, lie and we’ll still let you out.” Gerolymatos served two years on Canada’s Advisory Council on National Security and says the Khalistan movement is still alive in Canada, and Reyat will be free to help revive it once his sentence expires in August 2018.
Upon assuming the office of Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau boasted of having more Sikh Ministers in his cabinet that the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While Indo-Canadians take pride in having Sikhs as ministers in the cabinet, such a statement was uncalled for. What motivated such a statement just when the new government was formed? Retrospectively now, it reflects the retrogressive policy of PM Trudeau and his government that is engaged in ethnic-centred divisive votebank politics that does no good to Canada. This is what led to political hara-kiri and failed foreign policy concerning India of PM Trudeau because of the blurred optics held hostage to Khalistani mindset. It is only because of such reasons elected Chief Minster of Punjab, Captain Amrinder Singh, was not allowed to visit Canada to meet fellow Sikhs. Last year, Capt. Singh had refused to meet Canada’s defence minister, Harjit Singh Sajjan, accusing him of being a Khalistani sympathizer. Though, Mr. Sajjan denied it but perception wouldn’t change anytime soon. During the visit, Indian government forced PM Trudeau to meet with Captain Amrinder Singh who politely handed over the name of nine Khalistanis based in Canada funding and fuelling terrorism in India. Does it not put Canada on backfoot? Obviously, it is not just about the “right of political freedom of expression”, as Mr. Ujjal Dosanjh former Heath Minister and Premier of British Columbia stated. This is about inadvertent tacit veiled support for extremists sowing seeds of terrorism, against which India and the rest of the world has reason to be sensitive about, and so should we be Canada. Given such sensitive ground realities, would it not have been appropriate to strategize the India visit to begin with a bilateral summit with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi followed by cultural visits? This would have meant business first and reassured India that Canada did not support separatist Khalistani and extremist forces from its soil, creating a warmth between Canada and India. Though PM Trudeau did it later realizing the sentiments of the people of Punjab, but by then it was too late. But this was not to be, the visit ended up as a fishing expedition that gasped for a catch before being wound up. Not only that, the invite to a former Khalistani terrorist, Jaspal Atwal, convicted for attempting to kill Indian minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu on Vancouver Island in 1986, to dine with PM Trudeau on two occasions put the visit in jeopardy. As if this was not enough, a picture of Jaspal Atwal with PM Trudeau’s wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, went viral making the entire visit a thoughtlessly planned wrecked expedition. Another Atwal’s picture appeared with the Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi at a film industry event in Mumbai. The invite, though rescinded later, was facilitated by British Columbia liberal MP Randeep Sarai for which he owned responsibility. This is obvious that Khalistani moles within the PM Trudeau’s team wrecked Canada’s relationship with a friendly country like India in pursuit of their extremist and separatist objectives. India or the world has no appetite for separatism or terrorism, not the least Canada that PM Trudeau should know better given the Quebec experience. While the world turns into a global village, separatist attempts make no sense in 21st century world.
What should be concerning to all Canadians is the spin given by the national security adviser Daniel Jean indicating that Atwal’s presence was arranged by factions within the Indian government. PM Trudeau stood by the statement of his national security advisor in the parliament but the Indian government slammed this allegation as “baseless and unacceptable” in the strong diplomatic terms. This has put the Canada-India relationship at the rock bottom. Two wrongs do not make one wrong right, the relationship now can only be salvaged by accepting the truth and facts, with a course correction in the interest of the nation. The lessons learnt must not be lost.
All is well that ends well. Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed PM Trudeau with a friendly hug at the official ceremonial reception in New Delhi. Both India and Canada jointly announced partnership for security and growth to realize the full potential of bilateral trade and investment. Importantly, both the leaders agreed to expand security cooperation through institutionalization of security framework and an agreement on a bilateral framework for cooperation on countering terrorism and violent extremism. It is now to be hoped that cooperation on countering terrorism and extremism will put an end to support for fringe Khalistani and extremist elements to usher harmony and peace.
India’s civilizational belief, “A relationship is about thoughts and not things” holds true for the world for all the time. We too should learn our lessons.
Azad K Kaushik, DSc (Paris), is President, National Alliance of Indo-Canadians
Kaushik.azad@gmail.co