Who is the New Fall Guy
After shutting the doors on Pakistan, Prime Minister Modi seems to have chosen Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the new fall guy. Modi has hardened his stand against Canada and there is no looking back at least in the near future. When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made his allegation public saying that "Indian government agents" were involved in Hardeep Singh Nijjar's killing, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar declared in Washington that these allegations were not consistent with India's policy and termed charges as "absurd and motivated". He went on to blast Trudeau saying he had offered no evidence to support his allegation against India. Though Washington said that it was a shared intelligence information among Eye 5 nations alliance (US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and India should cooperate. But PM Modi seems to be in no mood to take this lying down. The Indian government went on to show the door to 41 Canadian diplomats in India to leave the country. India firmly conveyed to Canada and Washington that Canada has a "permissive attitude towards terrorists, extremists, and people who openly advocate violence against India '' and giving shelter to them. The lurking question is: why is Canada not making the evidence public against India? Reason: Canada cannot make any information public as under the Vienna convention, diplomats cannot be snooped by any country and they are exempted from any such action too. If Canada shares intelligence with India officially, it would establish that Canada or the US snooped on diplomats working in Canada illegally. Such a disclosure will have far reaching consequences than the Nijjar killing. Perhaps, Trudeau had not realized that he is dealing with a different India. For PM Modi, Canada is a country where "organized crime from India mixed with trafficking in people, secessionism, violence, extortion and terrorism."
PM Modi firmly asked the Canadian PM to act on the list of anti-India terrorists freely operating there he had handed over to him in 2018. Modi reportedly remained tough with Trudeau when they had met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Delhi. But Trudeau did nothing and Modi decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. It must be remembered that Modi had firmly told the US that India would continue to import Russian oil despite a blanket ban imposed by it. Modi told Washington that importing oil from Russia is part of its “oil security and national interest”. The US had to look the other way.
A big tactical shift
PM Modi made a major policy shift when he allowed the Indian forces to undertake surgical operations inside the PoK to destroy terror camps in Balakot in 2019. India had a declared policy that it will never cross the border to attack the enemy and would rather defend itself. But Balakot changed it all and Modi decided to launch a direct assault inside Pakistan. Those keeping a track of what our top intelligence agencies are doing world over say that Modi's hawkish approach is largely due to Ajit Doval, National Security Adviser (NSA) in the PMO for ten long years now. Doval had worked since the days of Indira Gandhi and is a Pakistan affairs expert. He was the one who plotted to pit a known terrorist gang to eliminate Dawood Ibrahim in Dubai in 2005. Doval was head of the Intelligence Bureau and had retired the same year in January. But he continued to assist the Indian agencies in their operations. It must be remembered that the government was headed by Dr Manmohan Singh then. It's a different matter that the operation failed due to the foolishness of Mumbai Police then. M K Narayanan, Dr Singh's NSA, joined the ranks of hawks after blasts took place in the Indian Embassy complex in Kabul, killing 58 people, including defence attaché Ravi Mehta and foreign service officer V. Venkateswara Rao in 2008. Narayanan declared to all Police chiefs' “the days of talks are over. It's for action.” Doval was in smiles as he had always maintained that “talk to Pakistan in its language” and “the doctrine of “offensive defence” should be the order of the day. If more than a dozen hardened terrorists in Pakistan, Italy and elsewhere have been eliminated in the recent past, one must remember that India has changed its policy under Modi. India has conveyed to the Western world, “ if we are giving our markets to you to make money, there is no free lunch. There is a cost and Canada must fall in line against terror.” The last word on Canada is yet to be written.
An unsung hero
An unsung hero of this new era is former Chief of the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) Samant Goel, an IPS officer from Punjab cadre of 1984 who held the post for four years until June 2023. Most of the covert operations outside India can be attributed to the RAW under him. Of course, Doval was keeping his hawkish eye on what's happening around in these agencies. Samant Goel is cooling his heels after huge success making anti-India forces running for cover in Pakistan and taking shelter in 'Safe Houses' there. India's sleeper cells are active in Karachi, Lahore and PoK. The language of Pakistan has changed and public pressure is mounting for a peace deal with India.
