Canada should think hard before building partnership with India
Re Canada and India must forge a strong alliance, Opinion, Online, Oct. 14 Vijay Sappani argues that Canada and India must come closer because they are both democracies that share “values of freedom, justice, human rights, commitment to the rule of law, and a Westminster-style parliamentary system.”
Yet it’s puzzling that most of his article is devoted to fighting “terrorism” and to security partnerships, and there is no mention of the extremely parlous state of democracy in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party.
It has been over a year since the citizens of the state of Jammu and Kashmir were deprived of their freedom and constitutionally guaranteed autonomy, with the state divided into federally administered territories and mainstream politicians put under house arrest, along with army patrols, the arrest of hundreds under draconian anti-terror laws, a months-long shutdown of the Internet, and changes to domicile laws that are rapidly making Kashmiris a minority in their own land.
Another majoritarian masterstroke, the Citizenship Amendment Act, makes India’s significant Muslim minority second-class citizens; since March, protesters against this discriminatory law have been arrested under laws like the UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act), which allows people to be held for years without charges being filed in court or recourse to fundamental legal protections.
As for the rule of law … this went out the window a while ago, with the government silently condoning the lynchings of Muslim and oppressed caste men by cow-protection vigilantes and rushing to protect dominant caste rapists. The police themselves are some of the worst violators, fabricating elaborate conspiracies to enable the arrest of dissidents and human rights defenders.
COVID-19 restrictions have provided the fig leaf for the suspension of what was already a weakened Westminster parliamentary system, with bills rammed through without debate, and parliamentary committees and question period suspended.
Even before this, the prime minister rarely attended Parliament, and he has almost never attended a press conference.
Canada should think carefully before helping to legitimize this shamelessly anti-democratic government through strengthening ties with it.