Harper-Modi combo bodes well for Canada-India relationship
For the first time in more than 40 years, a sitting prime minister of India will make an official visit to Canada.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party that he heads won a landslide election in May 2014, ousting the centre-left Congress Party and giving India its most business-friendly government in a decade: one committed to boosting growth, creating jobs and reaching out to the world.
Modi’s key economic policy initiative has been the “Make in India” campaign, launched in October. The ambitious goal is to turn India into a global manufacturing hub. The median age in India is 25 and a staggering 13 million young people are expected to enter the workforce every year for the next decade or more. Modi is banking that large-scale, labour-intensive manufacturing, both for export and the domestic market, is the way forward.
For Canada, the combination of Stephen Harper and Narendra Modi bodes well for the future of the bilateral relationship. In an important sense, it represents a fresh start for both sides for a relationship that has been rocky for many years. In 1974, after India’s first nuclear test using Canadian technology, Canada imposed stringent sanctions on India, causing the bilateral relationship to nosedive. The relationship took another blow in 1998 when India conducted its second set of nuclear tests, resulting in more sanctions that were only slowly lifted after 2008.
For India, the main irritant has been the perception that Canada has been soft on the Khalistan separatist movement, which seeks a homeland for Sikhs in the northern state of Punjab, and which India believes with some justification receives funding and support from some Sikh Canadians. The botched trial of the accused terrorists who brought down an Air India jet in 1985 only reinforced India’s suspicion that the politics of the domestic diaspora trumped foreign relations when it came to cracking down on extremism in the Sikh Canadian community.
As individual leaders, Harper and Modi do not carry this baggage, since neither was involved with the nuclear dispute nor the mishandling of the Air India bombing. In 2006, Harper announced the opening of a trade office in Modi’s home state of Gujarat. It made Harper one of the first western leaders to reach out to Modi at a time when he was still seen as a pariah in London and Washington due to his alleged failure to stem sectarian violence in 2002 between Hindus and Muslims when he was chief minister of Gujarat.
The U.S. even imposed a ban on Modi visiting that country, something that Canada never did. Modi has never been charged with any crime, and he was cleared of wrongdoing by a Supreme Court investigation in 2012.
Canada under Harper has also been an important partner in the “Vibrant Gujarat” business and investment summits that were an important plank of Modi’s economic policy when he was chief minister. It gave Canada a jump on the U.S., which only began to engage with Modi seriously after his election victory last year. Modi and Harper also share a world view: both are conservatives and see themselves as political outsiders who have shaken up the political cultures of their respective capitals. Both are also political pragmatists who have pursued a gradual approach to their legislative agendas.
When Modi visits Canada this month, he’s expected to address large public gatherings, including members of the diaspora, in Toronto and Vancouver. As a percentage of the population, persons of Indian origin (around a million) are more numerous in Canada than in the U.S. But unlike their counterparts in the U.S., the diaspora in Canada has not yet played a significant a role in boosting the Indo-Canadian bilateral relationship.
One crucial reason is the different demographic character of the diaspora. In Canada, unlike the U.S., the diaspora is dominated by migrants from Punjab, some Hindu but mostly Sikh. Given the rancour over the Khalistan issue, many Sikh Canadians look with disfavour rather than affection toward India. In fact, in the lead up to the Modi visit, a coalition of Sikh Canadian groups has urged Harper to raise the Khalistan issue with Modi.
Harper must not succumb to such pressure and should keep the visit focused on economic co-operation. Khalistan is a non-issue in India and must not be allowed to hijack the relationship.
Back in 2006, a forward-looking Harper realized that Modi was someone worth reaching out to. And Modi is the sort of politician to remember who his friends were when he was down. The Canadian government should capitalize on this unique advantage.
A rapidly growing India, now the world’s fastest growing large economy, will need raw materials, energy and expertise to build its manufacturing base and power its growth. Canada has these in spades and there is no reason why it shouldn’t benefit from India’s rise.
Canada has not been on the radar screen of India’s political elites for four decades. Now is the time to change that.
Harper should keep the visit of India PM Narendra Modi focused on economic co-operation