- Diplomatic tensions peak over Sikh separatist’s death
- India-Canada relations deteriorate, driven by Khalistan issue
- Trudeau faces political pressure amid domestic challenges
India and Canada have removed their top diplomats amid rising tensions over the death of a Sikh separatist on Canadian grounds, marking a new low point in a hitherto amicable relationship.
While previous disagreements have strained relationships, none have reached this point of confrontation.
In 1974, India stunned the world by detonating a nuclear bomb, causing anger in Canada, which accused India of taking plutonium from a Canadian reactor, a gift intended purely for benign purposes.
Relations between the two countries cooled significantly, with Canada withdrawing financing for India’s atomic energy effort.
However, neither dismissed their top diplomats, as they did on Monday, as the controversy heated up over last year’s assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh leader in Canada who India has labeled a terrorist.
The tit-for-tat expulsions came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that Canadian police were looking into allegations of Indian spies’ direct participation in the June 2023 homicide.
Canadian police also accused Indian operatives of participating in “homicides, extortion, and violent acts” against pro-Khalistan activists advocating for a separate Sikh homeland in India. Delhi dismissed the charges as “preposterous.”
Canada has the most prominent Sikh diaspora outside of the Indian state of Punjab, with around 770,000 Sikhs living there. Sikh separatism, which began as a brutal insurrection in India in the 1980s and early 1990s, continues to strain relations between the two countries. Delhi has sharply criticized Canada for failing to resist the pro-Khalistan agitation within its borders. According to India, Canada is aware of and has been watching local Khalistani groups for some years.
This connection has been on a downhill slope for some years, but it has finally reached rock bottom, according to Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center, an American think tank.
“Publicly making extremely serious and specific complaints, removing ambassadors and top diplomats, and issuing diplomatic declarations with harsh language. This is unprecedented territory, even for this strained relationship.”
Other observers concur that this moment marks a historic transition.
This represents a significant slide in Canada-India relations under the Trudeau government,” stated Ryan Touhey, author of Conflicting Visions: Canada and India in the Cold War World.
Mr. Touhey, a history professor at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, believes that one of the significant achievements of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s ministry was establishing a “prolonged period of rapprochement” between Canada and India, pushing past issues like Khalistan and nuclear proliferation.
“Instead, given Canada’s large Indian diaspora, emphasis was placed on the value of commercial and education relations and people-to-people connections. The Khalistan issue looked to have subsided since the turn of the millennium. It has suddenly erupted all over again.
Canada’s claims come as Trudeau was fighting anti-incumbency at home, with elections just a year away. According to a new Ipsos poll, only 28% of people believe Trudeau deserves re-election, and only 26% support the Liberals. India’s foreign ministry attributed Canada’s claims to the “political agenda of the Trudeau government that is centred around vote bank politics” in stinging statements on Monday.
In 2016, Trudeau reminded reporters that he has four more Sikhs in his cabinet than Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India. Sikhs significantly impact Canadian politics, holding 15 members in the House of Commons – more than 4% – although representing only roughly 2% of the population. Many of these seats are in hotly contested battlegrounds during national elections. In 2020, Trudeau showed worry about farmer demonstrations in India, prompting strong criticism from Delhi.
“I believe that broadly speaking, this situation will convey the impression that this is a prime minister who appears to be going from one disaster to the next. greater specifically, it may cause greater pain than ever in the Indo-Canadian community,” adds Mr Touhey.
He says that the Indian diaspora in Canada, originally primarily Punjabi and Sikh, has expanded to include many Hindus and immigrants from southern India and the western state of Gujarat.
“They are happy with India’s economic change since the 1990s and would not support Sikh separatism. Historically, the Liberals have had significant political success with the Sikh vote, particularly in British Columbia.
Mr Touhey, on the other hand, believes that the India issue is not the result of vote bank tactics.
Instead, he feels that the Canadian government has frequently missed signals from Delhi indicating Indian worries about pro-Khalistani groups in Canada.
My strong impression is that after decades of pleading with Canadian governments to address Indian concerns about pro-Khalistani elements in Canada, they believe they are back at square one. Except this time, says Mr Touhey, there is a much different government in Delhi that is willing to act forcefully, right or wrong, to rein in perceived domestic threats.
Mr. Kugelman has a similar sentiment.
“Other factors at play explain the rapid deterioration in bilateral relations. This includes a basic misunderstanding: what India perceives or presents as a deadly threat is viewed by Canada as simply activism and dissent permitted under free speech. “Neither is willing to make concessions,” he adds.
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All may not be lost. The two countries have had a long-standing friendship. Canada has one of the largest Indian-origin communities, with 1.3 million people, or almost 4% of the population. India is a priority market for Canada, ranking as its tenth-largest trading partner by 2022. India has also been Canada’s leading source of international students since 2018.
On the one hand, the relationship is far more broad-based than ever before, owing to the size and diversity of the diaspora, as well as increased bilateral trade and student exchanges—though, according to Mr. Touhey, this last point has also become a source of contention for the Trudeau government.
So, I believe such people-to-people relationships will be acceptable. At the top bilateral level, the Canadian government cannot accomplish much as it enters its final year, with an election scheduled for the autumn of 2025.
However, things appear to be quite awful, according to analysts.
Delhi now makes the same claims against Canada as it does against Pakistan on a regular basis. It accuses Ottawa of hiding and supporting anti-Indian militants. However, the rhetoric used to make these claims against Canada has recently been stronger than against Pakistan. And that’s saying something,” Mr Kugelman remarks.
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