India and Canada Expel Each Other’s Diplomats, Exchange Accusations With Charged Rhetoric as Bilateral Relations Reach the Lowest Point Yet
After a cooling down period, the tensions between Canada and India appear to again have spiraled down beyond the point of no return with the mutual expulsion of diplomats and charged rhetoric from side to side.
To begin with, Canada expelled India’s high commissioner and five envoys in the wake of Canada’s national police revealing the possession of evidence linking members of India’s government ‘to multiple homicides and other violent acts on Canadian soil’.
As a response, India will recall its top diplomat in Canada and announced the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats.
Politico reported:
“’The evidence brought to light by the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] cannot be ignored’, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday (14) afternoon. ‘We cannot abide by what we’re seeing right now. Canada fully respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India. We expect the Indian government to do the same for Canada’.”
Canada’s Mounted Police said this evidence constitutes a ‘significant threat to public safety’ in the country, in special to members of the Khalistan movement.
“’We felt it was imperative to confront the government of India and inform the public about some very serious findings uncovered through our investigations’, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Mike Duheme said during a news conference Monday. ‘Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada leveraged their official positions to engage in clandestine activities such as collecting information for the government of India, either directly or through their proxies’, he said.”
Few details were provided about these imminent violent acts, or about diplomatic involvement in criminal acts.
Deputy Commissioner Mark Flynn hasn’t been able to present evidence of Indian agents involved in serious criminal activity to top Indian law enforcement.
“Last fall, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shocked the nation when he revealed in Parliament that Canada had uncovered evidence that agents of India may have been involved in the killing of Sikh Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down in June 2023 near a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia.”
Bilateral relations never recovered and are now, once again, at their lowest point over this alleged foreign interference.
“’Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said Monday that the decision to expel the diplomats was based on “ample, clear and concrete evidence’ that identified six individuals of interest to the Nijjar case.”
As one would expect, India issued a sharp refutation to Canada’s allegations that its High Commissioner is a ‘person of interest’ in a murder investigation.
New Delhi described them as ‘preposterous imputations’.
NDTV reported:
“The Ministry of External Affairs issued a sharp rebuttal, stating, ‘The Government of India strongly rejects these preposterous imputations and ascribes them to the political agenda of the Trudeau Government that is centered around vote bank politics’.
‘Since Prime Minister Trudeau made certain allegations in September 2023, the Canadian government has not shared a shred of evidence with the Government of India, despite many requests from our side. This latest step follows interactions that have again witnessed assertions without any facts. This leaves little doubt that on the pretext of an investigation, there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains’, the Centre’s statement read.
‘High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma is India’s senior most serving diplomat with a distinguished career spanning 36 years. He has been Ambassador in Japan and Sudan, while also serving in Italy, Turkiye, Vietnam and China. The aspersions cast on him by the Government of Canada are ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt’, it added.”
The latest escalation follows a short encounter between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Justin Trudeau on the ASEAN Summit in Laos recently.
Trudeau said he reiterated his concerns about the safety of Canadians and upholding the rule of law.
“’Prime Minister Trudeau’s hostility to India has long been in evidence. In 2018, his visit to India, which was aimed at currying favor with a vote bank, rebounded to his discomfort. His Cabinet has included individuals who have openly associated with an extremist and separatist agenda regarding India. His naked interference in Indian internal politics in December 2020 showed how far he was willing to go in this regard. That his Government was dependent on a political party, whose leader openly espouses a separatist ideology vis-a-vis India, only aggravated matters’, Centre’s statement read.”
India has many times voiced its concerns over the pro-Khalistan ‘terrorist’ movement in Canada, insisting that Canada take action against members advocating violence and extremism.
The connections between Khalistani extremists, organized crime, drug syndicates, and human trafficking should be a matter of concern for Canada as well, India alerted.
“’To that end, the Trudeau Government has consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada. This has included death threats to them and to Indian leaders. All these activities have been justified in the name of freedom of speech. Some individuals who have entered Canada illegally have been fast-tracked for citizenship. Multiple extradition requests from the Government of India in respect of terrorists and organized crime leaders living in Canada have been disregarded’, the statement read.”
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