New Delhi: The India-Canada diplomatic row continues to make global headlines in most publications covering the escalating tensions between the two countries.
In a report on the wide-ranging reach of India’s intelligence, The New York Times says that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau surprised many in diplomatic circles when he first publicly accused the Indian government of orchestrating a campaign to assassinate Sikhs on Canadian soil.
Quoting a commentator as saying that Justin Trudeau “crossed the red line” with India by levelling the charges himself as opposed to having those at lower levels take the lead or leaking the story to the press, the NYT highlights that Canada so far has very “little specific evidence”, and India has “strong denials”.
“In India, media organisations and commentators have taken a near uniform view: that Mr. Trudeau’s actions against India are driven entirely by domestic politics,” the NYT reports.
Canadian Sikhs are an important vote bank for Justin Trudeau.
The “crossed red line” makes another appearance — this time on the Canadian side. In an opinion piece, The Globe and Mail clearly says that India was the one who “crossed a red line”.
“The alleged criminal activities carried out by the Indian government represent a clear violation of Canadian sovereignty and the rule of law. No government can be allowed to engage in such egregious behaviour on the territory of another country. A clear red line has been crossed,” it says.
“Of course, this should not come as a surprise. India has long been suspected of foreign interference activities in Canada. And recent events in other countries suggest a similar pattern of behaviour,” it says, before discussing the failed plot to assassinate Pannun in New York.
Picking up on the difference between India’s engagement with the US and with Canada, the op-ed calls India’s rhetoric in the Canadian case “inflammatory”, “its denials insistent” and “its actions extreme”.
It concludes that there’s no guarantee that “India will temper its behaviour in the future”. But for now, “Canada did what it had to do”, the piece adds.
The Financial Times recapitulates the sequence of events, repeating that relations are at an all-time low between Canada and India. Calling it an “extraordinary dispute”, the FT also takes note of India’s accusation that the entire saga was conjured up as vote bank politics for benefitting Justin Trudeau.
China, not to be left behind, offers its own two cents in a report in Global Times. It speculates that ruffled feathers can only be smoothed over by the US. Quoting an expert at Tsinghua University, the report claims that given the alliance between the US and Canada and America’s “attempts to woo India for geopolitical purposes in recent years”, Washington is most likely going to step in. But reconciling New Delhi and Ottawa “will be a tough task for the US, and to some extent, it is awkward for the US as well”, the report says in a nearly gloating tone.
The Guardian carries a report — dateline Toronto — on the Air India flight, en route to Chicago, being forced to make an emergency landing in Canada because of a false bomb threat.
Seen in the context of frosty relations, coupled with a bloody and complicated history of aeroplane hijacks by Sikh extremists, the bomb threat was taken seriously.
Just last year, in November, Canadian police investigated threats against Air India after a prominent Sikh leader warned the community from flying with the airline. At the time, the Canadian government said it was taking the threat “extremely seriously.”
The Guardian report recounts the Kanishka bombing, calling it “the worst act of mass murder in Canadian history”. It also reports that “Canadian officials received significant criticism for ignoring or downplaying threats” in the years that followed Kanishka.
Another The Guardian report, this time on Baba Siddique’s murder in Mumbai, also takes note of Canada — this time expounding on the Lawrence Bishnoi connection.
“The killing was quickly claimed by one of India’s most notorious gangsters. Lawrence Bishnoi has been in jail since 2014 but continues to control one of the country’s largest criminal empires from behind bars,” the report says. “His so-called Bishnoi gang has been linked to several high-profile killings in India, including of a famous Punjabi rapper, and is also accused of being involved in transnational terrorism in Canada.”
While most media outlets are speculating on how India possibly overstepped its bounds by allegedly trying to carry out two assassinations on international soil, Al Jazeera has published a report on how the US-based Hindu American Foundation has been lobbying on behalf of the Modi government.
The report, supported by the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University’s Journalism School, details how the Hindu American Foundation has been “attempting to influence the US government through meetings with members of Congress to push for the passage of multiple pieces of legislation on critical aspects of US foreign policy related to India”.
Despite distancing itself from the BJP in public, the Hindu American Foundation, the report says, has tried to “counter the Modi government’s critics, collaborated with the Indian embassy on events and programmes, and corresponded with the embassy on sensitive matters.” Some of these include lobbying for Modi and against foreign policy deals that could affect the Modi government adversely.
The report also details Hindu Americans who contributed to political campaigns in the US and organisations linked to the Sangh Parivar. “These political donations have helped rally support for Hindu and Indian geopolitical causes,” the report says.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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