After putting the lives of millions of ordinary Canadians in danger, some sense has prevailed in Canada’s Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who has finally turned towards Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the COVID-19 vaccine, much to the chagrin of the Khalistani elements who had been pressurizing Trudeau to sever ties with New Delhi.
PM Narendra Modi himself tweeted yesterday that he talked to PM Trudeau and that India promised to deliver the COVID-19 vaccine. “Was happy to receive a call from my friend @JustinTrudeau. Assured him that India would do its best to facilitate supplies of Covid vaccines sought by Canada. We also agreed to continue collaborating on other important issues like Climate Change and the global economic recovery.” tweeted the Indian PM.
Oh look. Trudeau has finally called. And it was all about the vaccine. Why he was so late and reached out only under pressure is obvious. https://t.co/yVJUaMGZJu pic.twitter.com/inPFs8nB2V
— Shubhangi Sharma (@ItsShubhangi) February 10, 2021
It is pertinent to note that India has been delivering home-grown, indigenously developed COVID vaccines around the world and yet PM Modi never took to Twitter to announce a single one of the endeavors. However, when it came to the conversation with Trudeau, the PM lead from the front and tweeted the portions of the talk instantly — suggesting New Delhi was sending a message to the Khalistan lovers that despite all the rhetorics, it is India that has had the last laugh.
Reported by TFI earlier, the vaccine program of Canada of vaccinating every single citizen by September had fallen way behind after the supply of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had stopped for the last week of January and reduced to 50 percent capacity for the month of February.
Read more: Trudeau has chosen to let Canadians die due to Covid-19 rather than asking PM Modi for vaccines
However, the egg on the face moment for the Trudeau government came when Conservative party leader Michelle Rempel Garner questioned Anita Anand, the ruling party MP, about whether “the honorable MP or PM Trudeau had called PM Narendra Modi asking Canada could get vaccines from India”, the Minister of Public Services and Procurement used all her diplomacy to dodge the question by giving a carefully vetted yet nonsense answer.
“I am in regular contact with organisations and countries around the world to secure doses of additional vaccines,” said Anita. The opposition leader prodded her further and asked “Have you phoned PM Narendra Modi?” “I personally haven’t phoned PM Modi and I cannot speak for anybody in our government,” said Anita with a straight face who also added that she didn’t know if Trudeau had called PM Modi or not.
In nutshell, it appeared that the Canadian government was willing to compromise with the lives of Canadians just because the leader of the country and his colleagues had some grudges against the Union government of India.
However, after the video went viral, the Trudeau government under the increasing pressure of the general public wilted and called New Delhi for help. Michelle Rempel Garner took to Twitter to thank the Indian government for taking the call.
Update: after this exchange, Trudeau called @narendramodi. Thank you to the Indian government for taking the call! Opposition political pressure works. https://t.co/nKkkUicUD5
— Michelle Rempel Garner (@MichelleRempel) February 10, 2021
It’s not to say that Trudeau dropped his liberal fangs all of a sudden. Despite pleading for the vaccine, Ottawa tried to rake up the farmer’s issue by talking about an amicable solution which of course was conveniently ignored by the MEA in the press statement and the PM in his tweet.
Trudeau has been in news for all the wrong reasons since he supported the farmers’ protests in December drawing a sharp response from the Indian government. Foreign minister Jaishankar darkly warned of bilateral ties being affected. But the Trudeau government refused to heed Indian requests to act against Khalistani elements present in the country.
The vaccine diplomacy of India and Canada’s helplessness might force Trudeau to chalk out a new strategy that decouples his government from the Khalistani influence. It is India that has acted generously by showing an ability to sidestep Trudeau’s misdoings. Hopefully, Trudeau returns the favor by culling the wings of Khalistan extremists springing up like mushrooms in the liberal country.