The US insisted on the Taliban and Pakistanis to hand over al Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden for the 9/11 crime. They did not heed the demand. The CIA took on board Pakistani conduits and eliminated Osama. Not a dog barked.
The US claimed that Saddam had developed a nuclear bomb. It warned him but without any result. Though no clue to prove that Saddam had a nuclear weapon has been found, the US rejoiced in his killing. Not a dog barked.
The US asked the Taliban regime in Kabul to hand over Al Zawahiri, the al-Qaida chief, hiding in Afghanistan. They did not, and the US took him out with a powerful missile. Not a dog barked.
The US warned Iran to contain Suleimani, the Commander of the Iranian Commando force, engaged in subversion in the Iraq-Iran region. Tehran turned a deaf ear, and Suleimani was done away with a precision missile. Not a dog barked.
India repeatedly told Trudeau to contain the anti-India Khalistani terrorists on the soil of Canada. A dossier containing Nijjar’s anti-India and other criminal activities (including drug peddling) was also forwarded to Ottawa. Trudeau did not pay heed because he had political compulsion, which made him put his interests first and national interests last. He thinks the same about India.
Why did the US secretly finish its al-Qaeda adversaries in different parts of the world? Because it claimed national security was threatened. Does President Joe Biden think that the US is a sanctimonious country against which no terror will be tolerated and India is a third-world country whose national security can be compromised?
The US has advised India to cooperate with Canada in finding the truth about the killing of Nijjar. That sounds fine and rational, and India, given the broad features of its foreign policy, should be more than ready to cooperate in a sensitive case like the one we are discussing.
But some questions arise. Did Trudeau cooperate with India when he was given a dossier and kept abreast by the Indian mission in Canada about the provocative and anti-Indian activities of the Khalistanis? No, he did not cooperate at all. Did he cooperate when Hindu temples were attacked in Canada?
Did he cooperate when two factions of Khalistanis clashed somewhere in Canada? Did he cooperate when told about the activities, conspiracies, and illegal fundraising of Khalistani goons in Punjab and the routes and sources they pressed into service for transferring money illegally to Canada?
Did he cooperate when it was brought to his notice that the former India Prime Minster, the late Indira Gandhi, was abused and humiliated in a public demonstration by the Canadian Khalistanis?
He did nothing. But asks for India’s cooperation in allowing him the freedom to patronize the Khalistani separatist and terrorists to be left untouched in their Canadian hideouts. Trudeau should change his colonial mindset.
On the promise of anonymity, a US diplomat said Five Eyes had conveyed the clue of Nijjar’s killing pointing to India. The Five Eyes is a secret service of five English-speaking whites (US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand).
It is a powerful but non-transparent organization. The question is, if they had verified or non-verified news of India’s hand in the killing of Nijjar, they must also have complete information on the activities of the Khalistani separatists-terrorists activities in all the above five mentioned countries, apart from India.
What action did the countries of Five Eyes take to advise Trudeau or UK about how the Khalistani menace needs to be dealt with.
If they had conveyed, would they be prepared to share it with India if India cooperates with Canada to find out the facts? Will India not raise the question about the answerability of the Five Eyes countries to burgeoning terror in Canada? And the attack of these Khalistanis on the Indian High Commission in London in the recent past is glaring proof.
Agreeing for argument’s sake that the entire Sikh community (whether in India or abroad) is for separation of Khalistan, will the Indian nation accept it even if a civil war is to be fought?
Did not President Abraham Lincoln, the greatest of American Presidents, fight the Southern separatists till they were defeated and decimated to make the United States the most powerful country in the world?
The truth is that the Sikhs of Punjab are the actual sword arm of the Indian defense forces, and they will be the last to accept vivisection of their motherland.
In light of this, India can assert that Canada has violated the UN Resolution on counter-terrorism worldwide. The US is supporting its Five Eyes colleagues to establish its hegemony.
Will India not be justified in labeling the Five Eyes countries as covert supporters of international terrorism and demand the Security Council to pronounce to that effect? The Security Council is morally bound to provide an answer to India’s charges.
This will vindicate the Indian External Affairs Minister’s open charge that the Western countries have double standards, one for the Global North and the other for the Global South.
Moreover, the Five Eyes, spearheaded by the US, should also investigate whether there was some technical snag forcing to ground the aircraft which the Canadian PM was supposed to fly him home or if there was something. Else, why did Trudeau refuse the hospitality of the Indian government to fly him home in its aircraft?
Why did Trudeau not accept the offer of the Indian government to shift him to a different lodgement befitting the Prime Minister of Canada, and why was the aircraft sent from Canada to pick him up diverted? This investigation should include the rumor of the security dogs sniffing drugs in the luggage and what happened later.
In the final analysis, the US and its Western allies must apologize to the world community on behalf of Trudeau that Canada has failed in its duty to check terrorism and anti-India tirades on its soil, and they reiterate their allegiance to the UN Security Council Resolutions on international terrorism.
Trudeau says that India should take the matter seriously. The US and its Western allies (Five Eyes) should take the issue seriously because their credibility is at stake.
India should call a gathering of all concerned mission heads in New Delhi and place its case before them threadbare. Trudeau does not understand that he has no method in the madness and has drawn the Western world to the brink of confrontation with the Global South.
- KN Pandita (Padma Shri) is the former Director of the Center of Central Asian Studies at Kashmir University. Views Personal.
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