mookiemcgee wrote:I'm too lazy to start a new thread, and since we have several intelligent Canadians in this thread already... one of you ELI5 the situation with India?
I split the thread for you. I'm invested in that other thread and thought this deserved its own.
I gave your thread a temporary title just to aid in identification. I admit it's not great -- feel free to change it.
mookiemcgee wrote:Basic facts i already understand:
A sikh elected official in the canadian govt who was born in Canada and was Canadian was killed a few months ago. It's recently come to light through intelligence sharing that elected officials in the Indian gov't were involved in the murder and it may go as high as Mohdi.
Add some layers for me, this seems like one of the bigger news stories to hit canada in a minute
Hardeep Singh
Hardeep Singh Niijar is the murdered man in question. He was NOT an official in the Canadian government, although he had back-door connections with politicians. He was a self-employed plumbing contractor and seems to have been fairly well off but not extraordinarily wealthy. His main claim to fame was as a local organizer and fundraiser for various Sikh religious and political organizations.
It is alleged by the Indian government that Niijar was an organizer of the Khalistan Tigers, a militant Sikh independence movement considered a terrorist organization by India.
This is the basic problem with these militant independence movements. Like the IRA or the PLO or the ANC, where do you draw the line between legitimate freedom fighters and terrorists? Most often it's just political expedience (Haganah=good, Hezbollah=evil). Ties always exist between similarly minded groups, some of which engage in terrorist activities and some of which don't. There's probably an impartial way to classify them, but that's too big a topic for now.
Are the Khalistan Tigers a terrorist organization? Only the Indian government has classified them as such. However, there's no doubt there were people in the Tigers who were tied to Dal Khalsa, another Sikh independence group which definitely
has engaged in terrorist acts, specifically the downing of Flight 423.
Sikhs in Canada
Sikhs are a fairly important minority in Canadian politics. The story of the Sikhs reads much like the story of the Jews: a persecuted minority that has learned to stick together and help each other move up in the world, has really strong and distinct community organizations, and thereby punches well above its weight in influence.
Quite a few members of parliament are Sikhs, several cabinet ministers, and right now even the leader of one of the opposition parties. They're an important minority to woo if you're in politics.
Of course some of them are pro-Sikh independence back home, just like many of our Irish citizens support Sinn Fein, etc.
Trudeau and Modi
Trudeau and Modi are like fire and water. Trudeau is pretty much the poster boy for everything non-liberals hate about liberals: a bleeding heart who gushes crocodile tears and spews out voluminous apologies to everyone on earth who has ever been mistreated by anyone else. Modi is pretty much the poster boy for everything non-conservatives hate about conservatives: a nationalist and religionist bigot who wants India to be a unitarian Hindu state and thinks India's many minorities should just crawl into a hole somewhere and die. These two guys can't agree whether it's night or day, not that I would believe either one of them myself.
Trudeau's official visit to India in 2018 was a diplomatic disaster. His wife was in love with the many cultures of India, and somebody in his office thought it would be great to dress them up in local costumes, a practice that was universally mocked around the world. More importantly, he had several meetings with people who were on Modi's shit list, including a couple Sikhs who are associated with Sikh independence movements.
It really hasn't gotten any better since then. India and Canada have been pretty much on the opposite side of every issue since then.
The recent G20 meeting was typical. Trudeau was the only leader that didn't have a private meeting with Modi. Modi torpedoed Trudeau's proposed statement of Solidarity with Ukraine, while Trudeau snubbed the Global Biofuels Alliance, a pet project of Modi's. Predictably, the two sniped at each other about Sikh independence. To wrap up the humiliating fiasco, Trudeau's plane broke down on the way home, and he had to spend an extra day in a country that made no effort to make him feel welcome.
The Cold War Cometh
It was almost common knowledge among the Five Eyes that India murdered Hardeep Singh. Still, nobody did anything about it, partly because he was no angel and probably is guilty of the things India accuses him of, partly because acting on it would reveal sensitive information we don't want brought to light. (For instance, I saw an article today that said our knowledge of the murder is based on our spying on the Indian embassy, spying we shouldn't be admitting we do.)
Why did Trudeau start pushing it?
Partly it's political pandering: Trudeau is in deep shit politically. With an election coming soon (within a year for sure, but possibly sooner) his popularity is at an all-time low. Making sure the Sikhs are on board politically would go a long way to shoring up Liberal votes in sensitive areas like Vancouver in the west and the 905 in the centre.
But partly I think the relations between Trudeau and Modi have now risen beyond dislike to actual outright hatred. I think we're at a point where Trudeau (for sure) and Modi (possibly) are willing to fight just for the sake of fighting and the goals are no longer entirely logical. We're now expelling diplomats, cancelling trade talks, and heading towards an actual Cold War.
