In India, Trudeau will be remembered as the Prime Minister who single handedly spoiled the relationship with a longtime democratic friend like India to appease a section of his electorate back home.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement to resign from his post has drawn mixed reactions in India. In fact, after Canada, Trudeau’s resignation may have been followed the most in India and drawn varied reactions.
There is a strong section of the Indians in India particularly in the state of Punjab, who were supportive of him and are feeling disappointed with his exit. At the same time, there is a large section of people in the country who are celebrating his imminent exit which is a matter of time only.
Despite India and Canada having enjoyed a long cordial relationship, Trudeau, apparently for his domestic political compulsions, took a stance that was seen as hostile towards India.
Trudeau’s Liberal Party government did not get along well with the Bharatiya Janata Party government in India.
There may be ideological reasons also, but traditionally the Liberal Party has always been seen taking a position that does not keep India’s sovereign and security interests into consideration.
Trudeau’s open espousal of the anti-India and pro-Khalistan elements living in Canada was too blunt and too unabashed. It is sad that Trudeau allowed his foreign policy, that too with a long time democratic friend like India, driven and dictated by a limited section of people, while keeping his own electoral interests in mind. During Trudeau’s tenure, the anti-India protests were quite rampant.
Glorifying assassins of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was a routine. However, a year ago, during one of the ‘Nagar Kirtans’, even Gandhi’s consoles were displayed with assassins firing on them. Despite repeated protests by India, the Trudeau government did not take any action against such elements.
Naturally the anti-India elements there got further emboldened, even threatening the Indian diplomats. As if the attacks by non-state subjects were not enough, the Canadian government accused several Indian diplomats posted in that country, including the High Commissioner Sanjeev Verma as “persons of interest” in the killing of pro-Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
His assassination in Canada outside a ‘gurdwara’ led Trudeau to blame Indian government officials for orchestrating the killing. India has been repeatedly asking for the evidence about these allegations, which the Canadian government has failed to produce so far.
When Trudeau raked up the issue of the Indian government’s alleged involvement in the killing of Nijjar, his purpose and intent was not lost on anyone. Since Trudeau has been facing the political upheaval for a long time, it was believed that he was only trying to deflect the attention from rebellion within his ranks to foreign interference in the country's affairs.
He reportedly sought the support of “Five Eyes” countries against India, but except for token statements asking India for cooperation with the Canadian government in the probe nothing further was done.
Nijjar who was heading a Gurdwara body, outside which he was shot dead, was allegedly killed over political rivalry. His assassination was also linked to the killing of Ripudaman Singh Malik, who was assassinated a year ago.
Mallik was also a Khalistani supporter and one of the prime accused in the Kanishka Bombing case. While both Nijjar and Malik were Khalistani supporters, that did not prevent their interpersonal fierce rivalry that eventually led to the killing of the both.
Trudeau was apparently aware of the entire plot, but was probably advised to implicate Indian agencies. Those who advised him obviously wanted to deflect the attention from the fratricidal wars going on within the pro-Khalistan groups in Canada. Identifying an outside enemy would obviously serve their purpose much better.
The issue came handy for Trudeau also, since, for a while he could divert the attention from his own political crisis within the party and the government. As such things come with an expiry date, Trudeau was eventually forced to quit.
Justine Trudeau’s father Pierre Trudeau also shielded the pro-Khalistani terrorists. When the government of India sought the extradition of Talwinder Singh Parmar as he had taken refuge in Canada after killing two policemen in Punjab, the senior Trudeau refused to extradite him back to India.
Parmar later masterminded the Kanishka Bombing, the worst aviation terror attack, before 9/11. 329 people were killed when the Montreal-London-Delhi-Mumbai Boeing flight was blasted midair. Parmar later returned to India via Pakistan and led the Babbar Khalsa International, till the time he was killed in a police encounter in October 1992 near Phillaur in Punjab.
With such a complex relationship the Trudeau family has with India, any development related to it will naturally be received with a lot of interest here.
And right now, India is actually celebrating Trudeau’s imminent exit as the Prime Minister of Canada.
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