New Delhi: Amid the ongoing diplomatic spat between India and Canada, an unexpected report has surfaced. The Foreign Interference Commission has made public an ad-hoc report that names “sample” social media accounts and posts from Indian media and journalists with “ties” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as potential sources of foreign interference in Canada’s federal elections.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, during his testimony before the commission Wednesday, alleged that Indian media was used to attack Canada and its citizens. He claimed that after his statement in the House of Commons last year, where he blamed India for the murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Indian government, through its media, responded with attacks on Canada. Trudeau said these efforts sought “to criticise us, to undermine our government and our governance and, quite frankly, the integrity of our democracy”.
The report, by Rapid Response Mechanism Canada (RRM Canada), examined a number of Indian media accounts and posts and named organisations such as ANI, WION, Aaj Tak, and journalists like Smita Prakash, Palki Sharma, and Anand Ranganathan. The report assessed their potential influence on Canadian public opinion, for promoting key narratives related to PM Trudeau, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, and Indo-Canadian relations.
RMM Canada is a permanent member of the G7 RMM secretariat and is responsible for monitoring state-sponsored disinformation.
The report assessed alleged information manipulation and interference from India, China, and Russia in response to Trudeau’s statement on the killing of Nijjar, monitoring posts from 18 to 20 August, 2023.
Dated 12 September and uploaded on the Foreign Interference Commission website on 26 September, the report came to light only Thursday when screenshots of pages of the report were circulated on social media.
The report has been ridiculed and criticised by the Indian journalists.
India Today’s journalist and news anchor Shiv Aroor has claimed that a snippet of his video from 19 September, 2023, has been listed by RMM Canada, alleging that the country “enables Khalistani terrorists”. He further called his news show on television as “a show calling out” Trudeau’s “protection of India-designated terrorists”.
Can’t make this up 😑
This video take from Sept 19 last year has been listed by the Canadian Govt as ‘foreign interference’, saying it has the potential to influence Canadians.
Why? Because I say the Canadian Govt enables Khalistani terrorists. pic.twitter.com/c8XMW5nn10 https://t.co/ZEhJZ3iFEw
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) October 17, 2024
Anand Ranganathan, author, and consulting editor at Swarajya reshared an X post that called Canada “a joke” for using his posts as “credible intelligence”.
😂🤣😂
Canada is using tweets / posts from this man as “credible intelligence” regarding Indian Involvement in Nijjar killing???
🤣😂🤣@Canada has become a Joke thanks to @JustinTrudeau @JustinTrudeauNo
Soon 5Eye will take Canada out for sheer immaturity & lack of balance! https://t.co/637u81jqiW
— Hanumankind (@Samster3) October 18, 2024
Also read: Justin Trudeau’s vote bank politics will take India-Canada ties to the Stone Age
What the report says
The report stated that RRM Canada couldn’t determine the exact number of Canadians exposed to this content but highlighted the “massive digital footprint” of Indian media outlets. Many of these outlets have large followings on platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. The report added, “It is very likely that both Canadian and global audiences” may have been exposed “to Modi-aligned narratives.”
Channels like Aaj Tak and Zee News have a combined following that is 14 times larger than Canadian outlets such as CBC and CTV News, it noted. “Some outlets have more than 10 million YouTube subscribers, including Aaj Tak/India Today (80 million), Zee News/WION (68 million), News 18 (50.8 million), Republic (31.7 million), and Times Now (10.9 million),” the report read.
It also noted that the high engagement of these social media pages is “authentic” as the RMM did not find any evidence of “bot” control. It maintained that although many of these channels echo similar, if not the exact same, narratives, there is no evidence that these are coordinated.
The report also noted the ownership of these organisations, stating, “Media moguls—such as Mukesh Ambani, the owner of the popular news outlet CNN-News 18—share personal ties with Modi and have benefited financially since the BJP’s rise to power in 2014”.
Several of these “Modi-aligned” media may also be called “Godi Media”, the report added.
It highlighted several key narratives promoted by Indian media—the accusation that Canada harbours extremists and terrorists, specifically related to the Sikh separatist movement, criticism of Trudeau, alleging the influence of Pakistan, and depicting Nijjar as a Sikh terrorist.
Additionally, there were repeated calls, the report said, for Canada to address extremism within its Sikh diaspora by Indian media and personalities. These narratives, the report read, were popular immediately after Justin Trudeau made a statement in the House of Commons claiming Indian authorities had a part to play in Nijjar’s murder.
The tone of these narratives had commentators accusing Trudeau and Canadian institutions of “enabling terrorism” and “falling into the hands of Khalistani extremists”.
Canada is conducting a public inquiry into the possibility of foreign governments and actors interfering and influencing federal elections.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also read: India takes a swipe at Trudeau over his ‘One India’ policy remark. ‘Gap between action and words’