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Mr. Harper, Brownie Points, and Modi!
4-21-2015
Last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave the term “Scoring Brownie Points” a whole new meaning.
Canadians, under the Conservative leadership of Mr. Harper witnessed authoring of one of the darkest chapters in Canadian history. On April 14th, 2015 we bartered away Canadian values of tolerance, justice, equality, human rights, peace-making for economic gains, when we rolled out the red carpet for India’s Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi. A person, who, until last year had a Visa ban imposed upon him by almost every civilized western democratic nation for his role as Gujurat communal violence which killed two thousand plus Muslims, injured and displaced few thousand others, while he was the Chief Minister.
By rolling out the red carpet for Mr. Modi, we as Canadians, have sent a very strange message to the world, that is, for economic gains and political scoring Canada is willing to barter away our good will and openly support war criminals, those who commit crimes against humanity, terrorists, terrorism, discrimination, violation of human rights, injustice, tyranny, and even war, all in the name of strengthening Canadian economy.
As Mr. Modi arrived in Vancouver, everyone experienced first-hand why people in India detest the “VIP Culture” where main roads, highways, are blocked off for citizens and “VIP” Motorcade consisting of thirty plus cars. It is much more than little inconveniences. It is about the partnership Mr. Harper has forged without any input from Canadians. How dangerous this partnership might be, one had to meet with protestors outside both temples, Vancouver and Surrey to realize that as Canadians we may have bargained more than what we can handle.
We may have made a deal with a devil without knowing the consequences and calculating overall risks. Let us hope we are wrong. However, if not, and this Conservatives new found love turns sour, it is the Canadians will have to deal with the guilty conscience, not Mr. Harper or Mr. Modi!
AlAmeen Editorial Board Members did visit the protests sites and tried gauging protestor’s sentiments and exactly why so many of them, from so many different backgrounds had decided to unite forces and come out on the street on a weekday.
What we discovered is that Mr. Modi who’s being presented as somewhat of a “Rock Star” is anything but that. Based on his questionable past, his speeches, and his views expressed during election campaign to woo supporters among Hindu Fundamentalists, and the party whose platform he won, Bharatya Janta Party, and his current policies, every person has a well-established reason to be fearful, especially, if you are a minority in India, Christian, Muslims, Sikhs, Dalits – all fear a massacre in the waiting.
We realized that the Indo-Canadian Sikhs are just as much worried about their loved ones in as Canadian Muslims and Christians, where both denominations have witnessed forced conversions to Hinduism, by Hindus.
Mr. Modi has strong ties and links to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), founded in the 1920s with the clear objective of making India a Hindu nation.
Indo-Canadian Christians among the protestors shared the sentiments of many of the Indo-Canadian Sikhs and Muslims that, Mr. Modi’s ambitions to purify India as Hindustan – Land of Hindus, that he would once again let the rampant crowd carry out a genocide against all minorities, just as he did in 2002 against the Muslims.
On August 5th, 2014, shortly after Mr. Modi’s Victory, Member of the European Parliament, Viorica Dancila, today put forward a question to the European Commission regarding the Prime Minister of India Narender Modi’s past record in keeping minorities safe in India: “Following the general elections held in India last May, Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was elected Prime Minister. However, recent reports in the international media have expressed great concern over Modi’s past record and nationalist agenda. Modi, a member of a Hindu nationalist party, has been criticised for his role in the deadly Gujarat Hindu-Muslim riots of 2002 in which more than 1 000 members of the Muslim community lost their lives. Modi was Chief Minister of the state at the time.”
No one among the protesters was against the idea of strengthening trade ties between the two countries, especially Muslims are very much supportive of economic development in India as there are nearly 200 Million Muslims who call India home, enough to match the largest Muslim Populated country in the world, Indonesia. Clearly, economic and trade will have positive trickle down affect for all, including Muslims. However, the objection was over the partner Canada have chosen to trade with, Mr. Modi, whom have managed to marginalize minorities from government jobs, among other concerns.
Lastly, the greatest concern about trade deals between Canada and India, which is being seen as between Harper and Modi is about exporting Uranium.
History repeats, first as tragedy, than as farce.
There has been a past precedent where Canada in good will supplied Uranium to India in 1970’s for the purpose of generating power. However, as it was discovered later it was used for developing nuclear bomb, not energy. What guarantee there is that India under Mr. Modi will not be repeated again?
If the enriched uranium is used for developing nuclear weapons, which Mr. Modi can initiate, it will spark an Arms Race within Asia as India two arch rival neighbours, Pakistan and China would be forced to up the ante, and rest can drown in ripple effect.
Mr. Harper, who seemed to be too engrossed in winning the next elections at any cost may have, with one simple hand shake, with Mr. Modi, bartered away much more than uranium.
With one simple bloody hand shake we may have surrendered everything we ever stood for, everything we as Canadians represent – Peace, Tolerance, Respect for Human Life, Human Rights, Justice, Equality, Self Dignity and Self Respect!
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