The allegations of Chinese interference in Canada's elections has labelled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a "weak leader" because of which he took a "conscious decision" of targeting India to distract public's attention from the controversy as well as other domestic issues, foreign affairs expert, Robinder Sachdev said.
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He also drew a parallel between the 'Chinagate controversy' surrounding Canadian premier and the Watergate scandal against former US President Richard Nixon.
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Speaking to ANI, Sachdev said, "Canada is not taking any actions, Canada doesn't have any empathy, Canada is displaying no empathy with regards to India. The reason being Trudeau has fallen trap to a Chinagate. Just like Watergate, which was a scandal of American democracy brought by Nixon, similarly, China gate is a scandal brought by Trudeau."
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"China has been interfering in Canadian elections since 2019 and 2021. There are huge controversies on that. In order to divert and distract attention from Chinagate, in which Trudeau is being labelled as a weak leader, Trudeau very wisely thought to amplify, to play up India to distract attention within his own country on his leadership failures. So we can expect more of this as Trudeau took a conscious decision of targeting India to deflect from his own problems and troubles regarding Chinagate," he said.
{{/usCountry}}"China has been interfering in Canadian elections since 2019 and 2021. There are huge controversies on that. In order to divert and distract attention from Chinagate, in which Trudeau is being labelled as a weak leader, Trudeau very wisely thought to amplify, to play up India to distract attention within his own country on his leadership failures. So we can expect more of this as Trudeau took a conscious decision of targeting India to deflect from his own problems and troubles regarding Chinagate," he said.
{{/usCountry}}The fresh escalation from Trudeau came an year ahead of the next elections. Trudeau's Liberal Party faces a mounting task amid plummeting approval ratings in the country. Recently, Jagmeet Singh's New Democratic Party also pulled out of his coalition government.
The ties between India and Canada soured after Trudeau alleged in the Canadian Parliament last year that he has "credible allegations" of India's hand in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
India has denied all the allegations, calling them "absurd" and "motivated" and has accused Canada of giving space to extremist and anti-India elements in their country.
The foreign affairs expert also spoke on the death of Hamas chief and mastermind of October 7 attacks, Yahya Sinwar, and called it an 'accomplishment'. He, however, also stated that death of one person doesn't decapitate the whole movement.
"The killing of Sinwar, a barbaric man, is definitely an accomplishment and a needed thing that has happened. So, that's a success, but a minor success because unfortunately, the nature of movements led by Sinwar, the Hamas movement; killing one person or the leader does not decapitate or stop the movement," Sachdev said.
He further asserted that Israel now has to work towards bringing normalcy to Gaza and restoring civilian lives. "Look at Al-Qaeda, Osama bin laden was killed burt even otherwise, multiple branches came up, the ISIS... So Sinwar's killing is definitely a major step forward but it now has to be accompanied with steps to bring normalcy to Gaza and restoration of normal civic lives. That is Israel's biggest challenge but this is one step towards accomplishing that challenge," Sachdev said.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) revealed on Thursday that Sinwar, along with two other terrorists have been eliminated by Israel.
Following the killing of Sinwar by IDF, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the people of Gaza, saying the the war can end as soon as tomorrow, if Hamas agrees to lay down its arms and return the hostages.
Sharing a video on X, Netanyahu said, "Yahya Sinwar is dead. He was killed in Rafah by the brave soldiers of the Israeli defence forces. While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it's the beginning of the end. To the people of Gaza, I have a simple message - this war can end tomorrow. It can end if Hamas lays down its arms and returns our hostages."