Adam: Was Chandra Arya right all along to court India's Modi?
Prime Minister Mark Carney came under fire from Canadian Sikhs for inviting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the just-concluded G7 summit in Alberta, given the Indian government's alleged complicity in the 2023 assassination of activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
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The case remains under investigation by the RCMP, and Sikhs around the country see Carney's invitation as a betrayal. But the irony of Modi's visit may not be lost on former Nepean Liberal MP Chandra Arya.
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His nomination for the Nepean riding in the April federal election was revoked for, among other things, alleged ties to India, including a controversial meeting with Modi in 2024. (And of course, Carney then ran in Nepean and won). Now that the Liberal government's posture toward Modi has changed, it raises interesting questions. If I were Arya, I'd be wondering why I lost my seat for trying to maintain ties to Modi, when Carney is now rolling out the red carpet to the very same Indian prime minister.
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Arya, a three-time Liberal MP, was first disqualified from running in the party's leadership race. The party did not explicitly explain why Arya's nomination was blocked, but said that candidates could be disqualified if they were deemed to be 'manifestly unfit for the office of leader of the party' due to 'public statements, past improper conduct, lack of commitment to democracy, or other reputational or legal jeopardy.' The inference was that Arya had behaved improperly, but the decision raised eyebrows because the MP had never been publicly accused or cited for misconduct over his decade-long career. Then the other shoe dropped, as the Liberal party revoked his nomination in Nepean without any publicly stated reason, paving the way for Carney's run.
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Arya's troubles began last year when, amid deteriorating diplomatic relations between Canada and India following the Nijjar assassination, and allegations of Indian government involvement, the MP travelled to India and met with Modi. It was no doubt an inopportune time to travel there, and the visit was disavowed by Global Affairs Canada. After that, it was not difficult to connect the dots and come to some understanding of why Arya fell out of favour with Liberal party. Indeed, multiple reports suggested that Arya's fate was sealed by that visit.
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But if Arya was punished for his ties to India, including the meeting with Modi, how does it look now with the Indian prime minister jetting to Canada at Carney's invitation, meeting with the Canadian prime minister, and discussing the resumption of diplomatic relations broken at the height of the Nijjar killing. Remember, Modi is the man who leads a government accused of masterminding a campaign of violence in Canada, including assassination of a Canadian citizen, and yet the prime minister is happy to embrace him.
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