Canada assassination claim sparks rare consensus in India’s polarised politics and media

Glad to know that all it takes to get Indians to stop hating each other is to make racist statements about a country that did nothing but point out extrajudicial killings aren't cool.

Canada has lost its way a bit recently. We've let American rhetoric shape us more and more to the point that right leaning politicians tout American ideals, and our centrist politicians get away with elitist bullshit because it knows the majority of Canadians just want our government to function instead of engaging in culture wars.

I feel like articles like this one are trying to get more Canadians mad at Indians... and that's not helpful. India is lead by a Hindu version of Trump, and just because their disparate political parties are all falling out of the clown car to clutch their pearls isn't going to make me think the whole country is like this.

I am starting to feel like we are a country need to spend some time looking at ourselves and seeing if there is a way to go back to rebuilding the reputation we had in the 90s. Friendly to a fault, and willing to help keep peace again.

I'm probably too naive though.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

When Justin Trudeau stood up in Canadian parliament last week to announce there were “credible allegations” that agents linked to the Indian government had been involved in the assassination of a Sikh activist in a suburb of Vancouver, it sent reverberations across the world.

Vohra’s only source for the information appeared to be rumours and his wife, who had apparently seen the Canadian prime minister “depressed and stressed” in Delhi airport, but that was enough for it to be presented as news on Zee network.

A show called #TrudeauBacksTerror aired on the inflammatory rightwing channel Republic TV, accusing Canada of condoning anti-India terrorist activity, while news site NDTV – owned by a businessman with close ties to the government – ran a column describing Canada as a country “of rising drug addiction and a slew of highly concerning medical policies, including medical assistance in dying”.

“The problem is Canadistan” ran the headline on a Times of India article written by former government adviser Brahma Chellaney, who alleged that “without curbing its Khalistani militancy, Canada could one day become the Pakistan of the west”.

Following India’s presidency of G20 this year and the recent leaders’ summit held in Delhi, Indian media had been awash with coverage about prime minister Narendra Modi’s growing alliances with western powers.

The rare cross-party solidarity and nationalist fervour stirred up by the incident raise the possibility that Modi could try to capitalise further on the Khalistan issue – a banned separatist movement that fights for an independent Sikh state in India – in the upcoming election in 2024, when he will be seeking a third term.

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