When Justin Trudeau stood up in Canadian parliament final week to announce there have been “credible allegations” that brokers linked to the Indian authorities had been involved in the assassination of a Sikh activist in a suburb of Vancouver, it despatched reverberations the world over.

Countries from the US to the UK expressed concern at the allegations, urging India to cooperate with the investigation. Inside India, the response was defiant. The authorities known as the allegations “absurd” and politically motivated and tried to show the tables, accusing Canada of being a rogue state that may be a “safe haven for terrorists”.

It was a temper of obstinance that has since echoed throughout Indian media and politics, at the same time as extra particulars have emerged of the allegedly incriminating intelligence that led to Trudeau taking the weird step of going public with the allegations.

An array of politicians – of the governing BJP and the opposition – in addition to information anchors, political commentators and former ambassadors have pushed an unusually unified narrative throughout Indian media that Trudeau is making the allegations for political acquire and to disguise his personal failings and that Canada is harbouring dozens of harmful violent militants related to the separatist Khalistani motion.

“PM Justin Trudeau has made these absurd and malicious charges only to cater to his domestic political compulsions,” mentioned the Punjab BJP president, Sunil Jakhar, whereas former diplomat Rajiv Dogra mentioned that “Justin Trudeau has been in trouble for some time now … he has been trying to divert domestic attention to other issues”.

The assaults have additionally been extremely private towards the Canadian prime minister. Deepak Vohra, a former Indian ambassador to Sudan, made a completely unsubstantiated allegation to a well-liked Indian information community earlier this week that the rationale that Trudeau’s airplane was grounded in India for 2 days after the G20 summit was not as a consequence of technical points however as a result of medicine had been discovered.

Vohra’s solely supply for the knowledge gave the impression to be rumours and his spouse, who had apparently seen the Canadian prime minister “depressed and stressed” in Delhi airport, however that was sufficient for it to be offered as information on Zee community.

Unusually, opposition politicians and leaders have additionally leapt to the federal government’s defence, making a uncommon consensus in India’s in any other case extremely polarised politics. “Our country’s fight against terrorism has to be uncompromising, especially when terrorism threatens India’s sovereignty, unity and integrity,” mentioned Jairam Ramesh, a spokesperson for the Congress social gathering.

Meanwhile Ravneet Bittu, a Congress MP, alleged that Trudeau’s social gathering was funded by components who’re “involved in the drug trade”.

Anti-western sentiment

The makes an attempt to discredit Trudeau and Canada have additionally been evident throughout Indian media. A present known as #TrudeauBacksTerror aired on the inflammatory rightwing channel Republic TV, accusing Canada of condoning anti-India terrorist exercise, whereas information website NDTV – owned by a businessman with shut ties to the federal government – ran a column describing Canada as a rustic “of rising drug addiction and a slew of highly concerning medical policies, including medical assistance in dying”. Another newspaper wrote of “Gangland Canada: Trudeau’s back yard global hub of eight Indian crime lords”.

“The problem is Canadistan” ran the headline on a Times of India article written by former authorities adviser Brahma Chellaney, who alleged that “without curbing its Khalistani militancy, Canada could one day become the Pakistan of the west”.

Following India’s presidency of G20 this yr and the latest leaders’ summit held in Delhi, Indian media had been awash with protection about prime minister Narendra Modi’s rising alliances with western powers. Yet Trudeau’s accusations have additionally prompted a pointy pivot and this week the pages had been heavy with anti-western sentiment and allegations of hypocrisy by nations such because the US.

“They are so quick to judge other countries, so blind to their own,” mentioned Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. “Hello? The two foremost practitioners of extraterritorial assassinations in the last 25 years have been Israel and the US. Any mirrors available in the west?”

The uncommon cross-party solidarity and nationalist fervour stirred up by the incident increase the likelihood that Modi may attempt to capitalise additional on the Khalistan situation – a banned separatist motion that fights for an unbiased Sikh state in India – within the upcoming election in 2024, when he shall be searching for a 3rd time period. In the 2 earlier elections, Modi efficiently used nationwide safety points and retaliatory motion towards Pakistan to challenge himself as a robust chief, and a few analysts say he may use related rhetoric and actions towards supposed Khalistanis, on which the opposition shall be unable to problem him.

“If the allegations are true, it is unlikely this was the primary motive,” mentioned Walter Ladwig, a senior lecturer in worldwide relations at King’s College London. “But the fact is that this can be exploited for domestic political gain.”