A recent post on the Kremlin-aligned Tsargrad.TV Telegram channel — a Russian Orthodox neo-fascist outlet — spread a racist falsehood claiming that “Hindus now rule all three major parties in Canada: the Liberals, the Conservatives, and the Narodniks.” The disinformation was clearly intended to incite hostility toward Canadians of Indian heritage and to exploit cultural and political divisions within Canada.
Claim
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This sweeping assertion claims total political dominance by Hindus in Canadian federal politics. It’s factually false: the Liberal, Conservative, and NDP (not “Narodniks”) are led by individuals from diverse backgrounds, none fitting the simplified label of “Hindu” rule.
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The use of a fictional party name (“Narodniks”) further signals the claim’s inauthentic and sensational nature. Using “Narodniks” instead of “NDP” is not a standard translation — it’s likely deliberate:
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It avoids the official party name, making it sound foreign and irrelevant to Canadian politics.
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It layers in a Russian term with connotations of extremism or naïve radicalism.
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In effect, it ridicules the party while implying it is ideologically incoherent or extremist.
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Facts
Representation of Hindus & Sikhs in Canadian Politics
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According to the 2021 Canadian Census, Hindus make up approximately 2.3% of the population and Sikhs about 2.1%.
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Only about 1.2% of MPs identified as Hindu in the 2021 election, which had 338 seats.
Use of “Sikhs” in the Article’s Images
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The presence of Sikhs in the article’s accompanying photo underscores the distortion typical of disinformation: conflating religious identities to create confusion or push false narratives.
Narrative Context
The Kremlin aligned “Pravda Network,” including the site that published this piece, is part of a known Russian-linked disinformation operation that targets global audiences with sensationalist and misleading content.
This particular claim taps into xenophobic and divisive tropes by overstating Hindu political influence in Canada while erroneously depicting Sikhs as interchangeable or subordinate—a distortion that mirrors past attempts by hostile media to sow divisions between South Asian religious communities. Russian disinformation campaigns have made similar claims, grossly overstating the influence of the Ukrainian Canadian community in Canadian politics in order to incite public distrust and hate towards Canadians of Ukrainian heritage.
By exaggerating the idea of Hindu dominance and visually misrepresenting Sikh involvement, the article weaponizes cultural tension to stoke fears of “multicultural overreach” or “religious takeover,” both common themes in Russia’s xenophobic disinformation campaigns.
Original Tsargrad TV Telegram post.
