By Ranjona Banerji
The Indian mainstream media, desperate for distraction from the state of the nation, and ever-increasing problems created by its favourite government, has just been handed a gift by Canada.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced to the Canadian Parliament on Monday afternoon of “credible allegations” that Indian forces killed Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Canadian politician and Khalistani supporter. Nijjar has been deemed a terrorist by India. He was shot inside his car on June 18, in Surrey, British Columbia.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/18/canada-expels-diplomat-amid-allegations-india-involved-in-killing-canadian-00116602
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/hardeep-singh-nijjar-killing-india-rejects-allegations-by-canada-khalistani-terrorists-and-extremists-pm-justin-trudeau/articleshow/103770665.cms?from=mdr
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/18/americas/canada-hardeep-singh-nijjar-india-intl/index.html
The chilly distance between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trudeau were evident at the recently concluded G20 summit in New Delhi. The decline in Indian-Canadian relations has been swift, after Modi’s self-congratulatory “2ab” visit to Canada in 2015.
There is no doubt that Canada’s support for Khalistani separatists has long been a problem for India. And that India is deeply concerned. But how bad is the Khalistani separatist movement for India’s sovereignty at this time? It has become, more often than not, a big stick for a Hindu supremacist government to threaten Sikhs in India with. As we saw during the year-long farmers’ protests in 2020-21, over the Modi government’s farm laws. The farmers themselves and people who supported them were accused by the government and the media of being Khalistani separatists, with no proof and with serious consequences for the accused.
The RSS-BJP and its lapdog media often bring up the unconscionable 1984 anti-Sikh riots which took place after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, to attack the Congress Party. But also use the Khalistan stick to attack Sikhs, in a neat reversal of logic.
As the Indian media starts to go ballistic and anti-Canada, we will find ourselves on the edge of an international diplomatic disaster. I have no doubt that the Indian media will go all patriotic – no harm in that – but will also largely ignore the diplomatic mis-steps which have brought us to this pass with Canada. Already trade relations are in jeopardy, as are the futures of thousands of Indian students in Canada.
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The alumni of the prestigious Vasant Valley School in the National Capital Region have reportedly written a remarkable public letter to Aroon Purie, owner of the school and of the India Today media group. The letter is said to request Purie to “clamp down on the hatred emanating from your airwaves”. The letter is allegedly written by 165 former students over 18 batches.
It mentions India Today’s stellar journalistic achievements in the past and compares those to the “polarizing tenor” of some anchors on India Today-owned channels like Aaj Tak.
The letter ends with a carefully and brilliantly worded paragraph: “Our school environment nurtured within us values of inclusivity, empathy and responsibility. You don’t owe us any answers, nor are we writing this to demand an explanation. Our only hope is that some of the values that were instilled within us as students, through our teachers, the school administration, our peers, and indeed Mr. Purie, find their way back to the India Today newsrooms”.
The letter was written on September 13 and there has been no public reply yet. Will the self-declared “gold standard of journalism” try a course correction as these alumni hope for?
https://thewire.in/media/vasant-valley-alums-fire-salvo-at-school-owner-the-india-today-group-for-communally-polarising-tv-news
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Serious as the Canada-India problem is, we can rest assured that the bulk of the Indian media will make a further hash of it.
And will also stop them from reporting on the very serious allegations of corruption in government schemes made by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. But CAG reports, as we know, are important sometimes and not at other times for the Indian media.
We’ve mentioned the recent CAG reports before and for what it’s worth, here’s one more:
https://thewire.in/government/cag-finds-tardy-performance-by-gujarat-and-kerala-govts-and-holes-in-centres-accounting
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Friday, and sometimes (like today) on other days as well. Her views here are personal.