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FATAH: Why the hostility towards India?

Author: Tarek Fatah
Publication: Torontosun.com
Date: March 3, 2021 
URL:      https://www.torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/fatah-why-the-hostility-towards-india/wcm/df5272e0-b65e-471c-af07-5938c4441086/amp/?__twitter_impression=true&s=03

On Saturday morning, a full-page newspaper advertisement stared at me.

It was signed by over a hundred groups led by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), dozens of left-wing factions and barely concealed Khalistani sympathizers.

Ostensibly it was a “Statement of Solidarity with Farmers of India,” a segment of whom are protesting three new laws passed by the Indian parliament in 2020.

But, on reading the text, it was evident the groups had made no attempt to hide their hostility toward the Indian government, which they addressed as a ‘regime.’

India is the largest democracy in the world, one that guarantees equal rights to its citizens belonging to six different religions, the birthplace of Buddha, Guru Nanak, Lord Ram and Krishna with people in 29 states speaking over 400 languages. It certainly deserves better.

This is how the signatories addressed the twice democratically elected government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi:

“The Modi regime rammed the farm laws stealthily through Parliament in September 2020, using its brute majority in the Lok Sabha…”

How else do the CLC and OFL want to pass laws in India? Have they ever labelled a law passed by a majority in Canada’s House of Commons as an act of “brute force?”

While the politburo of Canada’s commissars was drafting its anti-Modi manifesto, here is what was happening elsewhere in the world:

1. Military coup in Myanmar, leaving 18 dead and counting.

2. Genocide of the Uighur unfolding in China.

3. In Ethiopia, 52,000 have died in the Tigray conflict.

4. In Yemen, hundreds of children are starving to death in the continuing civil war.

I wrote to both the CLC and OFL as well as a dozen of the other signatories asking them why they had chosen India alone for their wrath. Would they come together and place a similar full-page advertisement against China or in support of the people of Myanmar or Ethiopia, I asked.

Finally, the signatories had this to say as justification for their assault on the Indian ‘regime’:

“Recent declarations of support for the farm laws by the IMF and the U.S. government indicate the range of forces backing them, adding an anti-imperialist dimension to the struggle against them.”

Really? Does this mean Canadian laws are acceptable only when they are opposed by the U.S. and IMF?

The signatories included the Pakistan Organization of Quebec, Toronto Association of Democracy in China, Indian Resistance Network in Norway and many who have no presence on the Internet.

The fact is that the three laws passed by the Indian parliament will be a step forward for Indian farmers and free them from the middleman who has monopolized what happens in India’s agricultural industry.

Let us look at the substantive issues involved in the farm reforms.

The farm sector in India employs a disproportionate number of people and its contribution to the national GDP has been falling over the years. The Indian government has declared its commitment to doubling the incomes of Indian farmers in the next few years, both by increasing the quality of inputs as well as by ensuring a better return on the agricultural produce.

The acts are intended to provide a legal framework for efficient, transparent and barrier-free inter-state and intra-state trade of farmers’ produce on an all-India basis outside the physical premises of state-regulated markets. The framework would facilitate selling by farmers including through electronic trading platforms for remunerative prices.

Among India’s 29 states, the thrust of opposition has come only from two states: Punjab and Haryana. No other state has witnessed outrage over cutting out the middleman.

Unfortunately, the discussion is not restricted to the merits of the case but is part of a well-organized campaign against prime minister Modi and his party — the BJP — being depicted as fascists. Add to the controversy the Khalistanis and the farmers strike has taken on the shape of a Hindu vs. Sikh conflict to the glee of next-door Pakistan.

Canada’s reaction should not have been governed by vote-bank blackmail. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already succumbed to his Khalistani base.

 

 
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