Wednesday, 16 October 2024
Wednesday, 16 October 2024
In a dramatic escalation of diplomatic tensions, Canada has ordered the expulsion of six Indian diplomats while India has booted out six Canadian envoys. The tit-for-tat expulsions came as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made explosive accusations linking the Indian government to “violent actions from extortion to murder against Canadians”.
The Indian government strongly rejected the "preposterous imputations" of the Canadian claims, saying they were part of Trudeau's "political agenda" centred around "vote-bank politics" with Canadian elections due to be held in the coming year. Sikhs make up nearly 2 per cent of Canada’s population and are the largest Sikh community outside India.
Trudeau’s allegations Monday came after Canada’s external affairs minister Melanie Joly announced the expulsion of the High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma along with five other diplomats.
The order came after the diplomats were named by the Canadian government as “persons of interest” in a probe into the 2023 gangland-style killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.
In a counter move, New Delhi expelled the six senior Canadian diplomats, including acting High Commissioner Stewart Wheeler.
The Indian government dismissed the Canadian allegations. “The aspersions cast.... by the Government of Canada are ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement which marked an unprecedented breakdown of relations between the two countries.
“Trudeau’s hostility to India has long been in evidence. In 2018, his visit to India, which was aimed at currying favour with a vote bank, rebounded to his discomfort. It added that Trudeau’s cabinet “has included individuals who have openly associated with an extremist and separatist agenda” regarding India..
“India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India,” the ministry warned.
Ties between the countries nosedived last year when Trudeau told Parliament that Canada had “credible information” linking the Indian government to Nijjar. At the time, the Indian government called the allegations “absurd” and ordered Canada to withdraw 41 of its 62 diplomats.
In Monday’s press conference held on Thanksgiving, a Canadian public holiday, Trudeau doubled down on his charges, accusing the Indian government of making “a fundamental error in thinking that they could engage in supporting criminal activity against Canadians here on Canadian soil, whether it be murders or extortion or other violent acts.” That, he said, “is absolutely unacceptable” for any “democracy that upholds the rule of law.”
In a press briefing earlier, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Indian government “agents” have been collaborating with the notorious Lawrence Bishnoi gang from Punjab to instigate violence in Canada where the crime boss is said to have a substantial base.
Bishnoi, 31, is currently imprisoned in Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad.
RCMP Assistant Commissioner Brigitte Gaubin said: “What we have seen is the use of organised crime elements, and it’s been publicly attributed to one organised crime gang in particular… the Bishnoi group is connected to the agents of India.”
Trudeau alleged that Indian diplomats had been “collecting, through questionable and illegal means, information on Canadian citizens that were then fed to criminal organisations that would then take violent actions from extortion to murder against Canadians.”
When asked directly if the RCMP was accusing the Indian government of criminal activities such as “homicide, extortion, intimidation, and coercion,” RCMP commissioner Mike Duheme responded unequivocally: “Yes.”
Nijjar was ambushed in the parking lot of the British Columbia gurdwara of which he was president. Three Indian nationals are awaiting trial in Canada on charges of killing Nijjar, 45, a plumber, in his pickup truck outside the temple.
India had designated him a terrorist in 2020 and had been seeking his arrest for his alleged involvement in an attack on a Hindu priest.
India said that it had recalled its diplomats due to concerns for their safety, citing an “atmosphere of extremism and violence.” But Canada’s Joly said Ottawa decided to expel the diplomats after the Indian government declined to waive their diplomatic immunity to allow them to take part in Canada’s investigations.
On the timing of the RCMP’s news conference on a Canadian public holiday, Duheme replied that “an extraordinary situation is compelling us to speak about what we have discovered in our multiple ongoing investigations into the involvement of agents of the government of India in serious criminal activity in Canada”.
Duheme said they were obliged to warn Canadian citizens about this threat after a series of talks with their Indian counterparts failed to yield results. “We’ve had ongoing investigations that indicate serious criminal activity in Canada with direct ties to Indian government agents,” he stated.
When asked for specifics, RCMP assistant commissioner Gaubin said since September 2023, the Mounties had warned at least 13 individuals of threats to their lives. “In regard to homicides, there are approximately eight individuals who have been arrested and charged, while at least 22 individuals have been arrested and charged with extortion. Some of these individuals have connections to the Indian Government,” she said.
The RCMP said the force was collaborating with security agencies in both the US and UK.
Duheme said RCMP deputy commissioner Mark Flynn attempted to meet with law enforcement counterparts in India to present evidence that government agents were involved in criminal activity in Canada. The attempts were unsuccessful, so Flynn met with officials of the Indian government, along with the national security adviser Nathalie Drouin and deputy minister of foreign affairs David Morrison over the weekend.
The Washington Post said in a story released just before the RCMP news conference that national security adviser Ajit Doval held a secret meeting with Canadian officials last weekend in Singapore.
The Post, quoting Canadian officials, said Nijjar’s murder last year was not an isolated incident but part of a larger, coordinated campaign of violence against Indian dissidents.
The newspaper said that the attacks were directed by a senior figure in the Indian government and a R&AW operative directed these attacks. It said Indian diplomats were involved in gathering intelligence on Sikh separatists.
The Canadians said that the claims were based on intercepted communications and new intelligence. Texts and conversations among Indian diplomats reportedly referred to two high-ranking officials in India — one from the government and another from R&AW — who were said to have authorised these intelligence-gathering operations, the newspaper said.
Canadian officials say that the true scope of India’s alleged covert campaign involving home invasions, shootings, arson and another killing, only came to light as new evidence emerged in the Nijjar investigation.
One of the cases cited by Canadian officials is the murder of Sukhdool Singh, who was shot in Winnipeg on September 20, 2023 — just a day after being named on a wanted list of gangsters by India’s National Investigation Agency. Singh’s death occurred just two days after Trudeau publicly accused India of Nijjar’s murder. Bishnoi claimed responsibility for Singh’s killing
After being summoned to the foreign ministry, acting high commissioner Wheeler told reporters that the Canadian government had shared “credible irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil”.
Now, “it is time for India to live up to what it said it would do and look into all those allegations. It is in the interest of both our countries and the people of our countries to get to the bottom of this. Canada stands ready to cooperate with India,” Wheeler said.
Last year, US prosecutors said in documents filed in a New York court that an Indian government official directed the plot to assassinate Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil and announced charges against a man they said was part of the failed scheme.
The US prosecutors did not identify the Indian government official but they said he was a “senior field officer” with responsibilities in security management and intelligence who previously served in India’s Central Reserve Police Force. India expressed concern after the US raised the issue, dissociating itself from the plot, and has launched an investigation.
The alleged assassination plots against Sikh separatist leaders in Canada and the US come at an awkward time for western nations which are hoping to forge deeper ties with New Delhi to counter China and Russia’s influence on the world stage.
