New Delhi: For the first time in almost a decade, India expelled a diplomat from a Western country Tuesday when it ordered Olivier Sylvestre — believed to be an agent of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) working in the Canadian mission in Delhi — to leave the country within five days.
This was seen as a tit-for-tat move after Canada expelled Pavan Kumar Rai — described by its foreign ministry office as chief of RAW in Canada — following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations about India having a role in the death of Sikh terrorist Hardeep Nijjar.
The last time India ordered a Western diplomat to leave the country was in 2014, when US-India tensions reached a high over the treatment meted out in New York to Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Devyani Khobragade.
Although tensions over the Khalistan issue have been brewing between India and Canada for years, the expulsion of diplomats marks a new low in bilateral ties.
Nijjar’s death, which took place on 18 June, sparked protests by his supporters in Canada. Posters featuring death threats against Indian diplomats put the bilateral relationship back on rocky ground. His supporters pointed fingers at the Indian government and disputed claims that Nijjar’s death had to do with gang violence.
Nijjar’s death came weeks after designated terrorist and Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) chief Paramjit Singh Panjwar was shot dead in Pakistan. Allegations of poisoning surrounded the June 2023 death of Avtar Singh Khanda, the UK-based chief of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) and alleged handler of jailed radical preacher, but he reportedly suffered from blood cancer and British police said his death was not “deemed to be suspicious”.
According to Harsh V. Pant, vice-president of studies and foreign policy at Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Trudeau has not been adept at handling Indian sensitivities on the Khalistan issue.
“India-Canada relations have been a prisoner of Trudeau’s personality,” he told ThePrint.
Pant added that this may explain why PM Modi and Trudeau only had a pull-aside meet at the G20 Summit earlier this month, instead of a
substantive bilateral.
“New Delhi seems to have given up on Trudeau because it’s clear he’s acting on domestic compulsions and has not shown any intent on bringing the bilateral relationship out of this rut,” said Pant.
During the G20 Summit, PM Modi held bilaterals with leaders from various countries, but only a brief pull-aside with Trudeau. During this meeting, the Khalistan issue was raised by the Indian side.
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What led to the tit-for-tat expulsions?
Nijjar, 46, who hailed from a village in Jalandhar’s Phillaur tehsil, was shot dead by two unidentified assailants near a gurdwara in Surrey at 8.27 pm local time on 18 June while he was returning home, according to media reports.
At the time, claims emerged that he was assassinated by India’s intelligence services while others suggested it was the result of gang violence, and a brutal competition for the control of well-funded Sikh religious institutions in Canada.
Nijjar’s criminal links played into the speculation, including the fact that he had allegedly demanded that rival millionaire businessman, Ripudaman Malik, be “taught a lesson” before the latter was killed in 2022. Malik was believed to have played a role in the 1985 bombing of the Air India Kanishka, although acquitted by Canadian courts.
On Monday, on the floor of the Canadian parliament, Trudeau said the country’s authorities were investigating a possible link between the Indian government and Nijjar’s killing.
“Over the past number of weeks, Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Trudeau said, adding that his government would take action “to hold perpetrators of this murder to account”.
Trudeau’s statement, posted on the Canadian House of Commons website, describes Nijjar as a “Canadian Sikh leader”. In India, however, he is on the home ministry’s list of terrorists wanted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Hours after Trudeau’s statement, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly announced the expulsion of Rai. “Today we’re acting by expelling a key diplomat, but we will get to the bottom of this,” she said.
In response, India expelled Sylvestre. India also released a statement denying Trudeau and Joly’s statements, calling them “absurd”.
A report Monday by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), quoting a government official, said Trudeau had briefed UK PM Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Joe Biden on the matter.
A spokesperson for the British government told ThePrint in an email: “We are in close touch with our Canadian partners about these serious allegations. It would be inappropriate to comment further during the ongoing investigation by the Canadian authorities.”
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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