Link to the article – https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/radical-elements-silencing-moderate-canada-sikhs/articleshow/105543101.cms
Summary – A vocal protestor accused the Indian government of orchestrating the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the president of the Surrey gurdwara in Canada and the coordinator for the Canadian chapter of the Khalistan Referendum. There was a video taken of his protest and it has been played on repeat across India spreading this belief. This accusation caused a serious step back in relations between New Delhi and Ottawa as it gives Ottawa concern about the goings on of the Indian government with such a serious accusation to the head of the government. The same man that was videoed protesting was also clipped saying, “I only wanted answers from ambassador Sandhu as to why India is using violence to stop the global Khalistan Referendum voting.”
Analysis – This accusation is either true or false, but either way it is bad publicity for the Indian government and also bad for their relations with Canada. If the accusation is true, and the president and government were involved in the killing of the Canadian chapter of the Khalistan Referendum, it shows deep problems in the Indian government that are now being publicized, which is a very bad look for them. If it is not true and the government was not involved, they should not have let this spread so far and let so many people believe it because now no matter what they do, people will still think they were involved in the killing. While it is not crazy for India to be against a huge group of people trying to break into their own independent state, it is unacceptable for them to kill the leaders of the movement against them as retaliation.
Connection to class – This is related to a core idea of liberal theory that we’ve talked about in class, diplomacy. The relationship between India and Canada is at a low point right now because of this protest talking bad about the Indian government, and now the Indian government is going to have to do what they can to gain back Canadian trust and to get their relationship back to where it was before this happened. The countries are not even close to a place where they are ready to go to war against one another, so this diplomacy is not to avoid war, but to help better each country by working together.