New Delhi: The world is watching the diplomatic spat between India and Canada unfold. Year-long tensions reached new heights Monday, with both countries expelling diplomats from the other side and issuing angry statements about breaches of sovereignty.
Canada says India was involved in killing Sikh separatists Hardeep Singh Nijjar and Sukhdool Singh on Canadian soil. India denies the charges.
The Washington Post helms this reporting with a shared byline of its London-based investigative foreign correspondent and Delhi-based India bureau chief. Published late Monday night in India, the report cites Canadian officials as saying that none other than Amit Shah and a senior RAW official led the campaign to gather intel on Sikh separatists, including Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Canada. The evidence was shared with NSA Ajit Doval Saturday at a secret five-hour-long meeting in Singapore, according to The Post.
“Officials said Indian diplomats have used violence as well as threatened to deny needed immigration documents to coerce Indians living in Canada to serve as informants against Sikh activists,” reports The Post. The campaign allegedly involved Indian officials working at Indian consulates in Vancouver, Toronto, and Ottawa, with now-expelled High Commissioner Sanjay Verma overseeing it.
The Canadian government also linked the attacks and killings of Sikh separatists in Canada with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang at a press conference Monday. It claimed that NSA Ajit Doval initially denied any knowledge of Bishnoi but later updated his stance to rattle off “facts, figures and anecdotes” about Bishnoi. NSA Ajit Doval reportedly said that Lawrence Bishnoi “was known to be up to no good from his jail cell” but also that the government of India would deny state involvement “no matter what the evidence was”.
Moreover, NSA Ajit Doval reportedly asked his Canadian counterparts in Singapore to treat the discussion like it “never took place”. But, by the time the Canadian officials landed in Ottawa, “pro-Modi media reports had surfaced in India describing how Indian officials had taken a “strong stance” and lectured Canada that “it cannot make unsubstantiated charges”, the Post reports.
The Post updated the report multiple times to include details of another case in which India faces similar charges — the attempted killing of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York.
The diplomatic parallels are clear. But, the Indian government seems to be cooperating with the Biden administration in the investigation into the assassination attempt on Pannun.
The Post named the RAW officer behind the plot as Vikram Yadav, and Indian media reported that a government team landed stateside to discuss the matter with American authorities. This cooperation, however, is missing between India and Canada, escalating tensions between the two countries.
For context, Trudeau barely survived a no-confidence vote against his government last month and faces growing pressure to step down after leading Canada for almost a decade.
The New York Times Saturday reported on how the Canadian government, one of the world’s most immigrant-friendly countries, is changing tracks and how Indian immigrants stand to lose.
It remains to be seen whether Trudeau’s current diplomatic gamble against India will pay off domestically. He’s certainly not currying favour in India.
Western media doesn’t seem to have an issue casting India as the belligerent player. ‘India accused of homicide and extortion‘, says the New York Times daily newsletter headline.
Another NYT report places the onus on India — “the diplomatic rift has suddenly grown more stark as Canada amplifies its accusations that India is directing lethal operations abroad.” Stating that the relationship between India and Canada is “at an impasse”, the report admits that Canada is “under pressure to reveal more details about its ongoing investigation”.
“Canada and India are two important countries on the world stage, each in its own way, and the breakdown in their relationship is disruptive to global affairs,” the report continues. “India is not a low-profile middling power: It’s booming […] But in courting Mr. Modi, other governments are choosing in varying degrees to look away from accusations that he is leading India down an authoritarian path and abusing the country’s minorities as he and his allies pursue a Hindu-nationalist agenda.”
Canadian media has stronger words, as one would assume. An opinion piece in The Globe and Mail squarely terms the Indian response to Canada as “the ultimate in gaslighting”.
The piece opens with how countries have gone to war over less. “Any democratic government, once informed of such grave accusations by another democratic government, would normally promise and provide full cooperation,” it says. But not the Indian government, which “when confronted with evidence gathered by Canadian police of complicity by Indian officials in criminal acts committed in Canada, responded with counter allegations that could only be true if the Canadian police and government were both completely corrupt and Canadian democracy a sham”.
Part of the ire is that New Delhi has been more “respectful” to the US investigation. “It would seem that Canada is the weak kid in the playground being bullied by someone who is, at the same time, being very careful not to offend an even bigger kid,” the piece summarises.
The Vancouver Sun reports that the Canadian police identified over a dozen credible and imminent threats after which the police have had to warn members of the “South Asian community”, most “notably those involved in the pro-Khalistan, or Sikh independence movement”.
It also reports leaders of major political parties across the ideological spectrum have backed the Trudeau government’s move, signalling a shift in his fortunes.
“Recent revelations about Indian agents operating in Canada are deeply troubling,” said John Rustad, a conservative leader in British Columbia. “No Canadian, including members of B.C.’s Sikh community, should ever fear for their safety or freedom of expression because of foreign interference on Canadian soil.”
Across the pond, The Guardian too ran a headline, ‘Canadian police accuse Indian diplomats of ‘criminal’ activities including homicides’.
The report highlights the Canadian police press conference as “the first official glimpse from police into the scope and depth of India’s alleged activities in Canada”. “Other prominent Sikh Khalistani activists in the US, Canada and the UK also said they had also been given warnings of threats to their lives,” the report notes, citing a previous report.
According to the report from earlier this year, “India had also ordered the assassination of dozens of individuals in Pakistan, including Sikhs, as part of a wider strategy to eliminate terrorists living on foreign soil.”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also Read: Global media takes note of Kashmir’s mandate on BJP & Ladakh people’s quest for autonomy