India’s relationship with another foreign country has soured; this time, it’s Canada over the “interference” in India’s internal affairs by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This, vis-à-vis the farmer protests around New Delhi. While granting that Trudeau’s support to the protests was uncalled for and a violation of diplomatic norms, the context cannot be lost sight of. That context also goes back to 2018 when he visited India and was not impressed by the responses he got.
Obviously, by supporting the farmers’ stir, Trudeau was extending his moral support to the large Sikh community in Canada. Trudeau’s eyes might be fixed on the Canadian elections next year, where the 1.5 million plus Indians settled there form a decisive electoral force; nearly half of them Sikhs. Trudeau’s support came at a Guru Nanak anniversary event. “Canada will always be there to defend the right to peaceful protest,” was how he commented. New Delhi responded with concern and cancelled some diplomatic engagements between the two nations.
Under Trudeau’s rule, there have also been allegations from the Indian side that the Khalistani separatists are allowed to target India from Canadian soil. The large-scale migration of Sikhs from India to Canada came in the backdrop of the alienation the community felt in India after the Khalistan offensives and counter-offensives in Punjab, as also the Delhi riots after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Now, Sikhs are among the most-prominent migrant communities in Canada. They drive the economy, and the defence minister is a Sikh. The suspected soft-corner that Trudeau has for the Khalistani separatists in Canada might have acted as a dampener to the Modi government when Trudeau visited New Delhi in mid-2018. PM Modi sent the agriculture minister in his first government to receive the foreign dignitary at the airport, rather than the PM himself turning up as has often been the case. Not much came out of the visit too.
Notably, another embarrassment for India from a friendly foreign nation came recently when seasoned Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohammad, who served as PM till March this year, criticised the Modi government over the Citizenship Amendment Act. That rupture in relations between the two countries continues. In fact, for one reason or other, India is losing close friends, as is also evident in the negative vibes that are spectacular in bilateral ties with Nepal, a brotherly nation till the turn of the century. Such trends are a serious strain and need be reversed through sustained efforts from the Indian side.
