Bula Devi reports from New Delhi
New Delhi Oct 15:- Tensions between India and Canada escalated by several notches on Monday with New Delhi expelling six Canadian diplomats even as India said it had withdrawn its own High Commissioner to Canada and some diplomats.
India’s Secretary (East) summoned the Canadian Charge d’Affaires this evening. The expulsions were accompanied by a nasty exchange of allegations and accusations from both sides over the alleged involvement of Indian diplomats in targeting Sikh Canadian citizens who India describes as wanted terrorists and separatists.
Among the six expelled Canadian diplomats are acting High Commissioner Stewart Ross Wheeler and Deputy High Commissioner Patrick Hebert. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said the expelled diplomats have been asked to leave India “by or before 11.59 pm on Saturday, October 19, 2024”.
Hours after India’s action against the Canadian diplomats, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that is investigating the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, said in a press statement that its “investigations have revealed that Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada leveraged their official positions to engage in clandestine activities.”
The RCMP’s statement was followed by a press conference in which Brigitte Gauvin, Assistant Commissioner of the RCMP, alleged that the Indian government was using organised crime elements to target pro-Khalistan persons in Canada. She named the Bishnoi group as among the crime elements India was using for its alleged criminal activities.
Earlier on Monday, the already fraught relations between the two countries sunk to new lows after India revealed that it had received a “diplomatic communication” from Canada that India’s High Commissioner and some Indian diplomats were ‘persons of interest’ in their investigation of the killing of a Sikh Canadian citizen on its soil.
India said Canada’s “imputation” that its High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and some diplomats were involved in targeting Sikhs was “preposterous”. It said the allegations of the Trudeau government against India and its diplomats smacked of a “political agenda” that was centred around “vote bank politics”.
India underscored that ever since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged in September last year that New Delhi and its agents were involved in targeting Sikhs in Canada, the Trudeau government had “not shared a thread of evidence” with the Indian government despite repeated requests.
“The 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,” India said without mincing words.
Accusing Prime Minister Trudeau of harbouring hostility towards India, New Delhi said his visit to India in 2018 was aimed at “currying favour with a vote bank”.
“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-à-vis India, only aggravated matters. Under criticism for turning a blind eye to foreign interference in Canadian politics, his Government has deliberately brought in India in an attempt to mitigate the damage. This latest development targeting Indian diplomats is now the next step in that direction. It is no coincidence that it takes place as Prime Minister Trudeau is to depose before a Commission on foreign interference. It also serves the anti-India separatist agenda that the Trudeau Government has constantly pandered to for narrow political gains,” said India.
To that end, India said while accusing the Trudeau government that it 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 organised crime leaders living in Canada have been disregarded.”
