India-Canada row: Justin Trudeau wants to talk to India privately now

Many salvos have fired in recent weeks; the latest is India asking Canada to withdraw 40 diplomats in the week till October 10. (Illustration by Suneesh K)

The India-Canada row over the killing of Khalistani plumber/ cook/ gurdwara cleaner/ arranger of furniture/ activist/ leader/ priest Hardeep Singh Nijjar—these are some of the ways that Western media has described him—is getting funnier by the day.

The Financial Times says that Canadian officials verbally presented evidence of Indian intelligence agencies’ involvement in the murder to their Indian counterparts, but India refused to cooperate in the investigation. Now, according to news reports, Canada is seeking “private talks” with India on the matter. Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau is babbling about wanting to build “stronger ties with India”.

Why on earth should any government agree to take forward an investigation where another government presents verbal evidence that the former is culpable in a murder? If at all true, what the Canadian government is, in effect, saying is: Hey, we believe you are guilty but don’t really have any concrete evidence, so why don’t you just admit you are guilty and give us the evidence?

A sub-inspector in a village in India would try to do better than that.

Also read: India-Canada row is proof that Indians are more confident of their place in the world now

Also, the prime minister of a country accuses India publicly, in his parliament, of murder and then publicly seeks private talks with India! What sort of clown show is this?

However, jokes apart, the last two weeks have shredded the carefully stitched veil that leaders, commentators and journalists from the West have traditionally covered their faces with. That veil has suddenly been ripped off and the deep-seated superiority complex, post-colonial hangover and racism are exposed. And a certain existential confusion.

To put it simply, the West believes that Trudeau is right because he is white.

The West is going through some serious crises on multiple fronts. It is heavily dependent on China to maintain the minimum quality of life for its citizens, from soaps and towels to phones and automobiles. The war in Ukraine is steadily impoverishing Europe. Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, is now technically in a recession. Meanwhile, Russia’s gross domestic product has been growing at 2 percent a year.

Western society is increasingly riven by the rise of the wokes, an irrational and fanatical environmentalism that does not care for either science or data, and extraordinary levels of illegal migration.

Climate activists in Europe have been defacing masterpieces and doing weird things that beggar belief. How does throwing tomato soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, one of the most beloved paintings ever, help mitigate global warming? Meanwhile, hundreds of the world’s richest businessmen travel on their private jets to attend climate change conferences in the best tourist spots in the world several times a year. And they dine on the best meat while advocating that we should shift to insect-based diets.

An estimated 10 million people from Central and South America have illegally crossed into the US in the last two and a half years. Many of them are being housed by the government in upmarket hotels through American taxpayer money. Last month, more than 12,000 illegal migrants from North Africa landed in the quiet little scenic Italian island of Lampedusa, which has a population of about 6,000.

It is certain that unless something unpredictable happens, almost every party currently in power in Western nations will lose the next election.

The West is in trouble. As often happens—and you don’t need to read any psychology textbooks to know this—when pushed into a corner, some people tend to get more belligerent. This is what we are witnessing right now in the India-Canada row.

Here are some of the tweets that I read. I won’t reveal the names of those who posted these on X, but trust me, each of them has a great resume, academic and professional, and has a very large number of followers.

“India in private meetings asked Canada to halt the police inquiry into the murder.”

Really? A detailed Washington Post report has already documented how the Canadians bungled the investigation—the local police force and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were arguing for hours on who should take charge of the case. Are our officials total nitwits that they would ask for the halting of police work in another country? What is this man, who seems to be a senior journalist, smoking?

“India is the most racist country in the world and the Anglo countries are the most racially tolerant.”

This gentleman refers to a study by some unknown Swedish organization. He is not aware that Indians are now thoroughly bored of these studies with deeply flawed methodologies and shady funding. And he does not have the attention span to notice that the report is 10 years old.

“Has the Government of India publicly described why the evidence it was presented verbally in August/September was/is inadequate?”

This is crazy. Why should the government of India publicly describe verbally presented evidence? When the accuser, Canada, refuses to reveal anything? Is the onus on the accused to prove his innocence? That goes against the basic principles of a civilized world.

And this one takes the cake. “Astonishing how any criticism of Modi is labelled racist. Talk about projection…”

One, “projection" is the mental process by which people attribute to others what is in their own minds. So is he saying that Indians are being racist towards Anglo-Saxons? Wow. The racist paradigm, which 80 percent of the world’s population is quite aware of, is being inverted to a… a whine.

Two, this is not about Narendra Modi at all. Not a single Indian political party has said a word supporting Trudeau’s allegations. And they will not. Trudeau’s folly has united Indians, even though the issue involves a country of little significance.

The exposure of the West’s racist attitude which is uncomfortable with India speaking in its own voice is a good thing. We trod our own path on Ukraine, which upset the West a lot, and we should keep treading that path. In fact, I suspect that quite a few Indians are having a good laugh at Trudeau and the knots he is tying himself into.