In a full scale war with Russia in Ukraine, unable to contain China’s expansionism, the Western Powers are presently in an avoidable face-off with India in the context of Canada’s bumbling politics. This has led to the emergence of a new self-realisation about twenty-first century reality. The India-Canada confrontation has blurred the lines between ‘their’ world and the ‘others’. The politicians, media and intellectuals are mostly of the opinion that PM Trudeau has bungled and created an unnecessary rift with ‘a natural ally’ with whom good relations are more important than ever before. So, while the protocols of the US-UK-Canada relationships are being maintained, a cold dose of reality is also being served by not further antagonising India. Even Trudeau seems to have changed his tune if recent utterances are anything to go by.
Lying behind this realpolitik is a growing concern about challenges facing present day democracies. The commitment to a concept of human rights and political freedom is being ‘gamed’ by unscrupulous forces, regardless of the social consequences. This has been pointed out by none other than UK’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman in the context of immigration laws being misused by criminal gangs of various kinds for economic benefit and not just political asylum. This has also been highlighted by India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar while commenting on terrorists and criminals being extended protection and patronage as ‘Canadian citizens’, even if entry was obtained using false passports.
It is easy for the totalitarian states to crush such subversion of the national good, but democracies cannot grant such powers to governments for obvious reasons. Braverman has asked for a review of United Nations’ refugee rules to check illegal immigration, declaring ‘multiculturalism’ as having failed. On his part, Jaishankar has underlined how this system has provided safe havens for criminals of every kind in the western ‘democracies’ out of a colonial sense of superiority and condescension towards India. Not just that, all kinds of judgements are passed by self-appointed defenders of human rights about India’s democratic functioning, further bolstering the biases existing in people’s minds.
It is good to see that the India-Canada tiff has triggered this self-examination among many sections of western society. It may be due to a realisation of India’s growing clout, but hopefully it will take policies in the right direction so that the essential liberal values are not weaponised against democracy, itself. Reform on this front will greatly benefit the free world.
