Should India Care About Canadian Opinion?
The Canadian High Commission in New Delhi has described the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) as “a notoriously violent paramilitary unit engaged in systematic attacks on civilians and responsible for torturing suspected criminals”. This was used as an excuse to deny visa to a former BSF jawan who wanted to travel to Canada. Such language is unnecessary and very surprising considering the friendly relationship between these countries. It also smacks of a sense of moral superiority. BSF is not a terrorist organization. It has the very difficult job of securing India’s borders. The timing is also odd considering this accusation comes close on the heels of the news that a top Canadian Air Force commander (Colonel Russell Williams) is also serial killer.
Defending India’s borders is difficult and it is not easy for a Canadian to understand. Pakistan, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh border India by land. Canada has a land border only with the United States. BSF has its share of controversies and it goes without saying that there is a lot of rule for improvement. But are we supposed to believe that Canadian troops will behave any differently if put under the same kind of pressure the BSF is under on a day to day basis?
Think of the United States. It borders the Canada in the north and Mexico in the south. America’s problem along its border with Mexico is well known. The United States has built fences, walls, canals and high tech equipment along its border with Mexico to prevent people from crossing over (this is strange considering that Mexico is for the most part a very friendly nation towards the United States and everybody knows that America runs on cheap labor from Central and South American countries).
Hundreds of individuals die every year trying to cross the border. Yet most Americans feel that border security should be tightened and tougher punishment imposed on those who are caught crossing the border illegally. If Canada was to border Mexico, will the Canadians behave any differently than the Americans? They will not. Even a nation with the best of intentions will go into a survival mode when they feel threatened. It is human nature.
On most key issues facing the world today there is very little daylight between American and Canadian views. Less than 70 years ago Canada sent over a million troops and participated in World War II. Today Canada is one of the countries at the forefront of the so-called war on terror. Canada has troops in Afghanistan and its soldiers in Afghanistan have committed their share of war crimes including torturing prisoners. So where is Canada getting its sense of moral superiority from?
What comments like this reveal is that although a country like India has come a long way in the past couple of decades many Western nations do not consider India as their equal. It is difficult to understand why because Canadians do not have similar issues when dealing with other developing nations particularly China.
Canada sees no problem when it comes to giving visas to Chinese officials all of whom are members of the Chinese Communist Party. The violent history of this party is well documented. The Community Party of China is also directly responsible for China being the only major nation in the world that is still not democratic. Of course the Canadians do not have the guts to make a similar statement against any American paramilitary or border security force (In fact you can cross over from Canada to US and back with just a drivers license). So Canada obviously does not have any issues allow people who have worked or currently working for organizations of ill repute. So why just target India and the BSF?
India has lodged a protest with the Canadian High Commission over these comments. I think it is a waste of time to protest when something like this happens. India should simply declare the individual who made these comments “persona non grata” and put him on a Air Canada flight back to Toronto. This is the clearest message India can send and Canada will be very careful before making such comments again.
India is a country that is headed in the right direction. We all know that the country has major issues to deal with including making sure that our law enforcement agencies are better trained and understand and respect basic human rights. Meanwhile what 20 million Canadians think about 1100 million Indians really does not matter. It is up to the Canadians to sort out their discriminatory polices.
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- Lessons India Should Learn From Pakistan
- India Should Not Buy F-16s and F/A-18s from the United States
- India and the American Empire
Category: News & Government
What we needed to do what was that the MEA should’ve come out in the open to condemn the Canadians. Sadly, they proved to be spunkless under KM Krishna.
Also, please note that that the Canadians have not yet apologized for talking crap about BSF. And that officer who signed that letter has not been sacked either. Ridiculous!!!!!
You are right Sush. MEA has no backbone. This is clearly a case of double standards by the Canadians and nobody is willing to call them out.
To answer your question .. absolutely not. Indian authorities should take this matter seriously enough and get their act together to raise this strongly through the media. Time and again, i have come across numerous cases of visa rejection. It is about time when they put some credible logic in place to deny visa.
Welcome Ravi,
I agree with you. The denial of visa seems to be based on some arbitrary rules. There seems to be no self “reform” or improvement process unless the issue becomes a high profile issue.