PM Modi’s popularity and India’s growing stature make Western media more envious

Tara Kartha

As Europe turns unabashedly to the right and the US elections are likely to throw up more divisions than democratic unity, India will continue to come under the jealous scrutiny of Western media, which won’t be impartial

Prime Minister Narendra Modi. PTI

Being popular has its own costs, as any high school captain will tell you. At the international level, those costs tend to multiply mightily. This seems to be the case with Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently being polled as the most popular leader in the world. He’s made it to the cover of most international magazines, with Foreign Policy being the most recent. With that has come a hail of criticism, with special nomenclatures being dug out of the woodwork to make a point against not just him but against India.

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Transnational repression is the new game

There are allegations against India regarding the murder of Hardeep Nijjar, a terrorist designated as such by Indian agencies, and who’s killing allegedly at the hands of Indian agencies causes a furore in relations with Canada. That case is widely cited as an instance of “transnational repression” (TNR), a terminology that has unknown origins and is unclear in the legal sense.

Canada, which recently shamed itself by holding a two-minute silence for Nijjar, has recently put together  legislation  on “foreign interference”. That, of course, has a wider field than TNR, encompassing national defence and security. Meanwhile, there is no published definition in Britain, the US, or Europe, even as it has suddenly become a catchword across continents.

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In earlier years, much of this referred to activities by Russia and China, with  Freedom House documenting 854 direct, physical incidents of TNR committed by 38 governments in 91 countries. China accounted for the largest number of incidents, but Turkey, Egypt,and Rwanda are among the top ten offenders. India was not mentioned at all. Apparently, Delhi did nothing at all from 2014–2022. It suddenly sprung into action only in 2023, becoming a top threat the very next year. This is a really tall order for any intelligence agency wanting to spread its wings.

The 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudis was a rallying point for human rights defenders for a while, but it eroded against the rock of realpolitik. The Saudis were too important to sanction, lecture, or ignore. But ‘experts’ of all hues soon came up, and the issue was soon being examined in Congress and other state bodies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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Recent  testimonies  by these experts raised the issue from a human rights one to  “not only a matter of national security, but is arguably more serious than some aspects of modern terrorism”. It also warns against ‘fake counter terrorism’, where ‘repressive states’ issue red corner notices against (presumably) innocent people who fear extradition.

Sensitive ground indeed, especially when states are not judged equally when it comes to addressing their national security concerns. What is justifiable for the United States in its global ‘War on terrorism’ launched after 9/11 is apparently completely unwarranted for others. No one raised the issue of transnational repression then, possibly because it was not repression at all but outright murder. True, many deserved it, and the world is better off without them. But many didn’t, and some of them were women and children.

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India came into the picture after the outrageous allegations in Parliament by Trudeau on Nijjar, immediately after he was given the coldest of shoulders at the Delhi G20 meet, after Ottawa did nothing at all to stop a series of outrageous incidents by so-called ‘Khalistanis’ including a float that depicted a blood-stained effigy of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Most recently, Delhi also lodged a  strong protest  on a ‘citizens court’ where K-extremists burned an effigy of the Indian PM. Even as the fracas continued, matters came to a head. A bipartisan ‘National Security and Intelligence Committee’ of Parliament was asked last year to investigate allegations of foreign interference in Canadian elections.

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The heavily redacted  report  seems to accuse politicians across the spectrum of being paid by not just China and India but also three other countries whose names have been redacted. That’s interesting, because these are clearly close allies. Ottawa would hardly hesitate to name others. The report has raised political temperatures, with each party pointing its finger at others on charges that include ‘relationships’ with foreign intelligence officers and knowingly or otherwise accepted financial recompense for influencing colleagues.

Given the serious incapabilities of Canadian security officials, which are  systemic, the veracity of the report is a question. An inquiry into the incident in May 2006, 22 years after the Kanishka bombing, roundly castigated the agencies for an “inexcusable” series of errors. According to experts, nothing much has changed since, in terms of empowering agencies and holding them accountable.

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Revenge journalism

Hard on the heels of these comes the most mischievous report of all. Avani Dias of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation alleged that she was abruptly  asked to leave, though this was denied by Indian officials. What followed was revenge journalism at its worst, with a report on Indian ‘infiltration’ into Australia by the “Friends of BJP”, a fan club that exists in almost all major countries, and holds car rallies and the like, and which has registered itself in the US.

Like all ethnic groups abroad, it does vie for political representation quite openly. To call it infiltration is beyond understanding. It jumps thereafter to a Khalistani member of the Sikhs for Justice who was warned by Canada (who else?) that he was in danger, whereupon he arrives in Australia. The most abhorrent part of the report? While it traces the ‘world wide’ Khalistani movement for ‘self determination’, and castigates Indira Gandhi for attacking its ’temples’, it completely skims over her assassination and subsequent terrorist actions over the years.

The Khalistanis are painted as a peaceful group. It does rake up the 2020 report that India had a  nest of spies  operating to monitor the diaspora. It may be remembered that Khalistani funded the murders of  Manohar Lal  in Bathinda as a follow-up, and the Ludhiana bomb case in December of the same year. In other words, the Khalistan issue, which stoked primarily from Canada, Pakistan and even Germany had become a ‘live issue’. That Indian concerns were justified is more than apparent, as the Khalistanis have inexplicably gained in strength and transitioned into a violent group that doesn’t hesitate to vandalise Hindu temples and  beat up  those who oppose it. The reality and the image conjured up by Dias are very different. And here’s the thing: To expect that any country would ignore such violent threats to itself and its diaspora is unthinkable.

Then are the series of articles in major journals such as Foreign Policy or  Foreign Affairs, all of which have ‘warnings’ about an “illiberal democracy” in India, are just a few on the barrage of criticism that follows predictable lines, including inevitably criticism of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a virtual para-military organisation and an extremist base. The fact that the RSS describes Hinduism as a ‘way of life’ rather than a religion is ignored, as is the fact that it works with all other religions, asking only that they put “India first”.

As Europe turns unabashedly to the right and the US elections are likely to throw up more divisions than democratic unity, India will continue to come under jealous scrutiny. That’s no bad thing, as long as it remains an impartial examination. The trouble is, it won’t. Expect more mud-slinging in a game of realpolitik played for specific ends of national interests. Meanwhile, the bottom line is that India’s intelligence agencies can’t afford to throttle back in the face of this pernicious campaign. Rather, it’s time to go in chin-up, but with the leaven of shrewd diplomacy. Both are two sides of the same coin of national security, which puts the dignity and safety of the country first. Meanwhile, brace yourself. There’s more to come.