New Delhi: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau congratulated India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his re-election, taking the opportunity to underscore the paramount importance of upholding the “rule of law,” a day after a Canadian parliamentary committee designated India as the second-most significant threat to Canada’s democracy.
After weeks of voting, the results of the general election were declared on June 4. While Modi’s party, Bharatiya Janata Party, is the single largest party in the next parliament, it failed to get enough seats to cross the majority mark and will need to depend on the support of its partners in the National Democratic Alliance.
In a written statement, Trudeau said that scale and scope of the democratic process in India is a “significant achievement” and noted that it was the largest democratic exercise in the world.
Congratulating the Indian PM, Trudeau said, “As bilateral and Indo-Pacific partners, Canada stands ready to work together to advance the relationship between our peoples – anchored to human rights, diversity, and the rule of law”.
The Canadian PM’s congratulations to Modi is noteworthy as relations between India and Canada have been strained since New Delhi reacted with anger after Trudeau had accused Indian government agents to be involved in the killing of a Canadian citizen. Indian security agencies had previously termed the citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, as a Khalistani terrorist.
However, as Trudeau also made clear in his statement that relations had to be based on “human rights, diversity, and the rule of law”.
The Indian PM has not publicly acknowledged the good wishes from the Canadian government. This is a departure from the notes of thanks he has written in response to congratulations from other world leaders.
‘India second-most significant foreign interference threat’
A day earlier, Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) had released a heavily-redacted report alleging that some Canadian lawmakers had deliberately assisted foreign governments like China and India to interfere in Canadian politics.
It stated that India had “emerged as the second-most significant foreign interference threat to Canada’s democratic institutions and processes”.
The report asserted that India was “interfering in Canadian democratic processes and institutions, including through the targeting of Canadian politicians, ethnic media and Indo-Canadian ethnocultural communities.”
It also claimed that India’s efforts extended “beyond countering what it perceived as pro-Khalistani efforts in Canada to include interfering in Canadian democratic processes and institutions, including through the targeting of Canadian politicians, ethnic media and Indo-Canadian ethnocultural communities”.
Also read: Canada’s Foreign Interference Report Says GOI Proxy Agent May Have Tried to Influence ’21 Poll
The report added that India “seeks to cultivate relationships with a variety of witting and unwitting individuals across Canadian society with the intent of inappropriately exerting India’s influence across all orders of government, particularly to stifle or discredit criticism of the Government of India”.
Further, it alleged that “some elected officials, however, began wittingly assisting foreign state actors soon after their election”.
While the section was redacted, the footnotes said that panel had seen “specific examples of Members of Parliament who worked to influence their colleagues on India’s behalf”. It alleged that some Canadian lawmakers had “proactively provided confidential information to Indian officials”.
Further, the document said – in another stretch of redacted text – that it “described an example of efforts to discredit a political party leader using materials drafted by Indian intelligence organizations”.
At another part, the NSICOP report stated that India had an “active proxy, who has proactively looked for ways to further India’s interests by monitoring and attempting to influence politicians”.
It described proxies as Canadian nationals who act on behalf of a foreign intelligence agent “creating a separation between the threat activity and the foreign actor”
An explanation for a redacted paragraph stated that the Candian intelligence agency had information that an “Indian proxy” had “repeatedly transferred funds from India to politicians at all levels of government in return for political favours, including raising issues in Parliament”.
