The Emperor’s New Clothes

The 'Justin Trudeau Show', quite frankly, would give the theatre of the absurd a bad name. With the US presenting its own village theatre sideshow hamming with Five Eyes, the hypocrisies of the West appear naked as never before. In an allegorical retelling of the famed English fable The Emperor’s New Clothes, the world should be clear that more than 10 days after his outrageous, unsubstantiated allegation against India, using vague language of ‘potential links’ and ‘credible allegations’ on the Nijjar killing, there is not a shred of evidence that Trudeau has made public. This could well be a turning point on two counts: how the leading countries of the Global North are perceived henceforth; and how the growing influence of India is compelling all to engage with it as an equal, no less.

For over a hundred years now, the world has seen the protection of national security and the protection of human rights inherently contradictory, especially when the individuals or groups concerned function as enemies of the State. Striking a balance between national security and human rights has therefore been marked by duplicity and double standards, with powerful countries publicising freedoms when it suits them or using the “you are either with us or against us” argument, when that’s more convenient.

What the countries of the Global North have failed to do is to subordinate their partisan interest and unequivocally condemn violence or incitement to violence by anybody declared as international terrorists or criminals. Instead, they have often given those who commit crimes against humanity safe passage and safe havens.

Three principal questions arise from this rather unfortunate downturn in the conduct of international relations, all worthy of the attention of India’s citizens. Why the emphasis on India’s citizens, you might ask. Simply because, there are forces inimical to India’s rise in the comity of nations, that work with one objective -- to destablise India, or worse still fight proxy wars through separatists, terrorists, and criminal gangs.

Let us begin with the first question: How should the world deal with fugitives from the law -- separatists, terrorists, drug peddlers, or international criminals -- who incite violence from safe havens in the so-called free world?

The United States sends its special forces to take out those that they consider its enemies or have waged war against it. So, in a covert operation, under the nose of the Pakistanis, they enter Abbottabad and take out Osama bin Laden. Recall how the Israelis took out, one by one, those responsible for the athletes killed during the Munich Olympics. These were heroic, justifiable, extra-judicial killings. What did India do with those responsible for the Air India Kanishka bombing in an operation conducted by Khalistani separatists from Canadian soil? It sent dossiers of evidence to the Canadians, who did precious little about it. Both Justin Trudeau and his father Pierre Trudeau must answer the question: what of the human rights of those who were innocent victims of that bombing – mostly Canadian citizens -- and several other similar attacks on India? A good beginning for Canada would be to bring a national law by which those who are declared terrorists and incite violence from Canadian soil are brought to quick and speedy justice.

Second, like similar other separatist or extremist movements, what does a country do when the movement is not just infiltrated but its leadership taken over by gangsters, drug smugglers, and other assorted criminals, that flee from the long arm of the law in one country and take refuge in safe havens like Canada? They are all the same and undermine the rule of law.

It does not get any more disgraceful than when the hypocrisy of the countries of the Global North becomes self-evident when the ‘credible evidence’ and ‘potential links’ referred to by Trudeau is debunked by no less than the premier of British Columbia, to be open source, essentially, something akin to a Google search.

Worse still, while this sordid episode has turned the spotlight of international scrutiny on radicalised Sikhs operating as gangsters on foreign soil, the overt way they operate in the West is arguably because many of their leaders are western espionage assets. So, if those that believe, in the absence of any evidence, that India did take out international terrorists, the least that it suggests is that India is no more a soft-bellied State. Trifle with us and we will operate on the doctrine of defensive offence. We will respond and dismantle your sources of violence. Not a bad image to have.

Third, if Canada and its allies genuinely believe that this small drama company led by the ‘Sikhs for Justice’ really needs an independent State, there may be no better place than to give it to them in British Columbia, where they seem to have converged. Khalistan has no support from the vast number of the law-abiding, honest, hardworking and eminently successful Sikhs in India or indeed across the world. As an overwhelming majority, contrary to all the fake news generated by this miniscule motley crowd of Khalistan supporters, Sikhs are happy, aspirational, and very much Indian.

As citizens of India, we should all recognise that the Sikhs represent what is finest in India’s culture and history. Therefore, we should never conflate Sikhs with Khalistan, as Trudeau seems to have done in a fatal error
of judgement.

Trudeau must know that if he sows the wind, he will reap the whirlwind, especially when there is little to separate gangsters and separatists who are today partners in his government. He must know that becoming a failed State is a fate not far away.

(The writer is Director, School of Social Sciences, Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bengaluru)