Look who’s talking

BACKING Canada’s efforts to vilify India over allegations of its involvement in the killing of pro-Khalistan terror accused Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the US — that inveterate global policeman — has stated that no country can get any ‘special exemption’ for such actions. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has said: ‘We will defend our basic principles and consult closely with allies like Canada as they pursue their law enforcement and diplomatic process.’ But has India sought any exemption, special or otherwise? Obviously not. New Delhi has not only rejected Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s claims as ‘absurd’ and ‘motivated’ but also asked Ottawa to share relevant evidence, if any. There’s a bigger question: Does the US have the moral authority to grant such an exemption, even if unsolicited, considering its own unenviable history of adventurism in foreign lands? The answer is again an emphatic no.

It’s a striking coincidence that America’s holier-than-thou outburst comes days after the 50th anniversary of the military coup in Chile. The Nixon-Kissinger duo threw its weight behind the Chilean armed forces, which overthrew the democratically elected government led by President Allende and ushered in General Pinochet’s 17-year-long blood-soaked dictatorship. Over 40,000 people were executed, tortured or imprisoned during Pinochet’s rule. Sanctimonious as ever, Washington recently declassified a series of 1973 documents in an ostensible attempt to ‘promote democracy and human rights in our own countries (US and Chile) and around the world’.

The US must explain what sort of ‘law enforcement and diplomatic process’ was followed when it swooped down on Osama bin Laden and neutralised him in Abbottabad, Pakistan. No less questionable is the glorification of surgical strikes and targeted killings in Hollywood movies such as Steven Spielberg’s Munich (2005), which was about the Israeli Mossad’s Operation Wrath of God against the perpetrators of the massacre at the 1972 Olympics. With such a track record, the US has laid bare its bias and double standards by targeting India.

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