Isn't it all dirty politics about Liddar?

Canada's politics has sunk to the lowest imaginable levels, writes Gurmukh Singh in Canada Diary.

We back in India always agonise over the sorry state of our politics. How criminals and feudals have taken over reins of power in Gandhi's land. How they get elected to the Indian Parliament. How they flout every law in the book (By the way, India has more laws than any other country on the face of this planet).

Many times we cite the case of western democracies which are said to practise value-based politics.

Sad to say, this is not happening in Canada these days. Its politics has sunk to the lowest imaginable levels in recent times. Look at how unabashedly they indulged in horse-trading to save Paul Martin's minority government during the May no-confidence vote.

The then Canadian natural resoures minister Herb Dhaliwal who made Chandigarh ofice possible.

How the millionaire Belinda the Blonde was lured out of the opposition Conservative party overnight and given the plum cabinet portfolio about which she knew next to nothing. It is another story that the government survived thanks to the vote of British Columbia's independent MP Chuck Cadman (who died of skin cancer last month).

In these dirty political games, some Indo-Canadians have been among the most prominent players. The Gurmant Grewal tapes of conversation with health minister Ujjal Dosanjh and Paul Martin's chief of staff showed how unprincipled and desperate the politicians on both sides of the divide are. One doesn't know whom to believe.

In recent days, another high-profile Indo-Canadian has been embroiled in a different kind of politics. Rather, he has become the victim of dirty politics between the previous government of Jean Chretien and the current Paul Martin government which chucked out all Chretien loyalists on taking over in December 2003.

Well, you can play politics with people on local and national issues. But you don't play politics with your foreign appointments. But this seems to have happened in the case of Bhupinder Liddar who was appointed Canada's consul general in Chandigarh when the then Prime Minister Jean Chretien opened their consulate general in November 2003.

The consulate general was set up after a lot of hard work by many Indo-Canadians, including the then natural resources minister Herb Dhaliwal. I remember how Dhaliwal shuttled between various VVIPs in New Delhi during his visits to get the nod for the Chandigarh office.

Initially, both the governments were against the opening of the Chandigarh office. For a while, this matter seemed to be getting nowhere. If the Canadian government agreed, India would refuse to give the go-ahead. Dhaliwal and his Indian friends lobbied hard to get the Indian okay.

Without an iota of doubt, the Chandigarh office was the baby of Herb Dhaliwal. This is another matter whether he was right or wrong in lobbying for Liddar who, of course, is one of the most known Indo-Canadian faces in Canada. I remember a former Indian Sikh diplomat (Chatwal) telling Dhaliwal at a felicitation function, organised by the World Punjabi Organisation in New Delhi, not to appoint an Indian to the Chandigarh post for various reasons.

Whatever it is, but no one could expect Dhaliwal -- who created history by becoming the first Indian cabinet minister in the western world in 1997 -- to back someone of dubious background. As he had told this correspondent in an interview later, he was deeply hurt when Liddar was not allowed to take over the Chandigarh post.

Liddar, like many others, was sent packing when Martin took over in Dec 2003. The reason: he needed to be cleared by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service or CSIS.

This raises many questions. Why was he cleared in the first place when they suspected him to be a security risk? Why was not the Chretien government informed by CSIS before it went through with his appointment?

The record of CSIS in the Liddar case is as dubious as in the Air India case when it erased tapes of conversation between the bombing mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar and Ajaib Singh Bagri who was later not found guilty. The judge in the case, Ian Josephson, had indicted CSIS for destroying evidence. That's why the killers of 329 Air India passengers are still to be brought to justice. So much for the Canadian justice system.

After two long years, with the Security Intelligence Review Committtee (SIRC) now indicting CSIS for blocking the Chandigarh appointment without any evidence and clearing Liddar, this case has taken an interesting turn.

Liddar and Herb Dhaliwal feel vindicated as do many Indo-Canadians. But will Liddar the post back? He is tightlipped and waiting. Technically, this man is still their consul general in Chandigarh, drawing the $120,000 annual salary. If he is not given the nod, he is likley to slap a huge lawsuit against the government.
Because, as sources close to him say, he has his reputation to retrieve. As media reports say, Herb Dhaliwal has written to the prime minister to let Liddar take over the assignment, citing the respect he commands among the politically influential Indo-Canadian community and the role he can play in fostering better ties between the two countries.

But funnily enough, in the aftermath of Liddar's victory, rumours have created to the effect that now India doesn't welcome him. But no Indian government official has yet said a word about it.

When he has been found innocent of any wrong-doing by the civilian SIRC, what else he needs to prove his innocent? The whole episode smacks of dirty politics at the highest level. You hang a person only if he is found guilty.

The episode is not going down well with many in the Indo-Canadian community who feel Liddar has been made a scapegoat (and there are many others who are eying this post with the backing of other Indo-Canadian politicians). They feel he has become the victim of the Chretien-Martin crossfire.

What happens to the man who is now being backed by none other than deputy minister for foreign affairs Peter Harder? Hard to say. But Liddar has already won a big victory.