Well-Connected Pro-Modi Media Personality Calls On India to Support ‘Right-Wing Parties’ in Canada’s Next Election

A popular and well-connected Indian media personality is ominously predicting that India will interfere in Canada’s upcoming federal election in 2025, and he says right-wing parties and think tanks in Canada need financial and political support.

In a video posted a few months ago on a YouTube channel run by Gaurav Arya, a retired Major with the Indian Army turned right-wing media personality, Arya suggested India will take direct and indirect steps to remove Justin Trudeau from power.

“India will put all their pressure, whether indirectly or directly, so Justin Trudeau’s government will fall and another government will come,” Arya said in a May 8, 2024 video on Arya’s YouTube talk channel called “Majorly Right.”

“In Canada, the think tanks and the right-wing parties will need to be supported, because there are a lot of right-wing parties in Canada,” Arya added .“They will be supported, either financially, politically or diplomatically.”

Arya adds that without money, nothing can be accomplished, so it is necessary for India to throw their support behind certain parties or candidates.

Arya is a popular right-wing pundit aligned with Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party who hosts a number of other web shows including “The Chanakya Dialogues,” in both Hindi and English, as part of Chanakya Forum, a digital magazine on “foreign affairs, geopolitics and national security” which Arya runs as its Editor-in-Chief.

Majorly Right (YouTube)

The Chanakya Forum is connected to influential figures in Indian military and diplomatic circles. Arya’s website counts dozens of retired Indian military officers and nearly a dozen former Indian ambassadors as contributors.

Arya’s YouTube channel has upwards of 2.65 million followers while he has an additional 1.6 Million on “X” formerly known as Twitter – Arya’s bio simply states “honoured to be followed by Shri Narendra Modi.”

Arya also has ties with Canadian figures, previously interviewing retired CBC journalist Terry Milewski who published a controversial report about Sikhs That was published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a right-wing Canadian think tank.

On another one of Arya’s shows on the pro-BJP media channel “Republic World” titled “Blitzkrieg,” Milewski’s report, which (now) Conservative MP Shuv Majumdar helped publish, was used to suggest Canada was a hotbed of “Sikh extremism.”

Republic World (YouTube)

In another show on “Republic World,” Arya appeared in a segment called “Trudeau in a Mess,” with Western Standard columnist Cory Morgan, as well as Milewski.

Canada is a frequent topic on Arya’s show, with entire episodes dedicated to the topics of foreign interference, Khalistan, Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh.

In other videos, Arya has claimed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is controlled by the “Chinese deep state” and quotes from CSIS documents tabled at the foreign interference inquiry as proof, but doesn’t mention any of CSIS’ findings on Indian foreign interference. In the same video, Arya once again claims that Justin Trudeau needs to be replaced.

Majorly Right (YouTube)

One point Arya does not mention is that the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference which took place earlier this year also revealed India likely used “clandestine activities” to interfere with Canada’s 2021 federal election.

Arya’s suggestion that India fund and support right-wing think tanks and political actors in Canada echo intelligence reports that came to light during the inquiry, including one report which stated Canada’s spy agency has a “body of intelligence” indicating Indian “proxy agents may have attempted to interfere in democratic processes,” something that reportedly includes “the clandestine provision of illicit financial support to various Canadian politicians.”

The report suggests the secret funds are designed to “secure the election of pro-(Government of India) candidates or gaining influence over candidates who take office.”

Canadian intelligence says India likely used ‘clandestine activities’ to interfere with Canada’s 2021 election.

Documents from Foreign Interference Inquiry allege India used ‘proxy agents’ and secretly provided ‘illicit financial support’ to candidates.https://t.co/dcOLm9Kfeb

— PressProgress (@pressprogress) April 5, 2024

Arya’s video discussing Indian foreign interference in Canada also goes on to describe a “plan” about “what will happen to Khalistanis.”

“Our ‘Rwanda plan’ will also happen, in which Khalistanis will be put on planes and taken to somewhere in Africa,” he added in the video, appearing to refer to forced expulsions.

Arya’s focus on “Khalistanis”— a reference to Sikh separatists who advocate for a sovereign Sikh state called “Khalistan,” highlights a growing targeting of Sikhs which also came up during the foreign interference commission.

An intelligence report tabled during the commission revealed that bots and fake accounts linked to India’s governing party have been observed interfering in Canada’s “digital information ecosystem.”

Arya goes on to add that Khalistanis will be forcibly removed from Canada.

“We will grab you by the collar and get you out of the country. And if any Khalistani by mistake gets Canadian citizenship —by mistake— don’t think that means you are safe,” he added.

“The right-wing parties who will come into power, who (India) will fund, they will retake their country from you, inch by inch, foot by foot, mile by mile, town by town, village by village, city by city, Canadians will retake Canada.”

Hate against South Asians, particularly against Sikhs has also ramped up online as of late, as Indian nationalists and white supremacists have joined forces to target this community in ways that are leading to real life violence.

Sailaja Krishnamurti, Associate professor and head of the Department of Gender Studies at Queen’s University says the overlap between India’s far-right and the global far-right has been increasing and intensifying in recent years.

“Trump supporters and Modi supporters ideologically have a lot in common and they connect to Canadian conservative party Pierre Poilievre ideals also,” Krishnamurti told PressProgress.

“We’re starting to see (alliances) emerge between Hindu nationalists and nationals from other communities whose values might align even if they are from different racial backgrounds.”

Arya’s assertion that Sikh Khalistani’s should be “shipped off” elsewhere denotes a disdain often felt by Indian nationalists or Hindu nationalists of India’s governing BJP towards other minority groups like Muslims and Sikhs.

“In Canada and the US my work has really tried to think through how Hindu and Indian get intertwined in this way. If you’re Hindu you’re Indian if you’re Indian, you support Hindus. If you’re Sikh, then you’re not really Indian,” Krishnamurti said.

Krishnamurti added that in many cases, due to caste positionality and other factors, Hindu immigrants do not see themselves in the same way as other racialized immigrants.

“To me it seems completely nonsensical that we have immigrant communities that are supporting essentially anti-immigrant politicians in Canada, the US and the UK but that is what we are seeing unfold,” Krishnamurti said.

Krishnamurti says that the politics of caste play into this subjugation of other groups like Sikhs and Muslims and an alignment with conservative views towards things like immigration.

“These are predominantly dominant caste or upper caste Hindus, and (these) are also people who reject anti-caste activism because they feel that anti-caste policies will directly affect them most explicitly. They are the ones who will be most under scrutiny if anti-caste policy or legislation is effective,” she added.

“All of this stuff kind of coheres around the idea of a Hindu nationalism, which is pro neoliberalism, conservative politics, it is explicitly Americanized and Zionist, it is Islamophobic, it is anti-immigrant despite having immigrant history within its own community.”

Krishnamurty adds that there remains a large lack of understanding around the impact of South Asians and South Asian issues on Canadian politics.

“I really think the average Canadian voter probably doesn’t know a lot about South Asian politics or how closely impacting South Asian politics are on what’s going on in Canada in terms of foreign interference, in terms of the kinds of underlying political ideologies that are circulating,” Krishnamurty added.

“I think as a society we have not really prioritized learning about how global politics are affecting our politicians and our and our governments.”