Détente through diplomacy

On October 14, a diplomatic row that has strained bilateral relations between India and Canada for over a year boiled over as the countries expelled each other’s top diplomats over the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. Experts say the standoff will make it difficult for both countries to move forward with a once-promising partnership and could impact India’s ambitions as it seeks to project itself as a rising world power, reports AP.

Canada’s allegations

On Monday, Canada announced the expulsion of India’s top diplomat in the country, along with five other officials. In response, India reciprocated by expelling six Canadian diplomats, including the High Commissioner of Canada in Delhi, Stewart Ross Wheeler. Canada’s government said it had taken the extraordinary measure of expelling the senior Indian diplomats to protect Canadian citizens and reassure those who may feel their safety had been compromised. India rejected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations that India was engaging in activities, including carrying out covert operations targeting Canadian nationals, in his country.

Quoting the Washington Post, The Wire has informed that the Canadian officials have told the Indian government that “conversations and texts among Indian diplomats include references” to Union home minister Amit Shah and a senior official in the Research and Analysis Wing in India “who have authorised… intelligence-gathering missions and attacks on Sikh separatists,” in Canada. The Wire also reports that this information was conveyed in a hitherto unpublicised meeting between top Canadian security and foreign ministry officials and Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval in Singapore on October 12.

Two days after the expulsion of Indian diplomats, the Canadian Prime Minister once again alleged that India had made “a horrific mistake” by thinking it could interfere as aggressively, as it allegedly did, in Canada’s sovereignty. Though time and again India has denied its connection to the killing of Nijjar, who it had labelled a “terrorist” and called the allegations “preposterous” and a “strategy of smearing India for political gains”, the Canadian Prime Minister alleged that Nijjar’s murder was part of an even more extensive Indian operation, with Indian government representatives systematically targeting dissidents inside Canada. “Violence towards Canadians … has been enabled by and in many cases directed by the Indian government,” said the Canadian premier, citing a national police investigation. He added that New Delhi, when presented with the allegations, had simply doubled down “on attacks against this government”.

In a significant development, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has alleged that the Lawrence Bishnoi gang is connected to the “agents” of the Indian government targeting the South Asian community, specifically “pro-Khalistani elements” in the country. When asked if India is targeting the Sikh community in Canada, the RCMP spokesperson said, “It is targeting the South Asian community... but they are specifically targeting pro-Khalistani elements in Canada...members of the pro-Khalistan movement. What we have seen, from an RCMP perspective, is that they use organised crime elements,” she added.

Reacting to this serious allegation, the New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh, a former alliance partner of Prime Minister Trudeau, claimed that Canadian Sikhs were stalked by fear. He urged the Canadian government to take action against India, specifically calling for diplomat sanctions. In a statement, he said, “We support today’s decision to expel India’s diplomats and we’re calling on the Government of Canada yet again to put diplomat sanctions against India in place, ban the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Network (RSS) in Canada, and commit to pursuing the most severe consequences for anyone found to have participated in organised criminal activity on Canadian soil.” reports The Hindu.

Sikhs account for more than 2 per cent of the total Canadian population, the largest community outside India, and form one of the largest ethnic voting blocs for the Liberal Party.

Canada garners support from its Western allies

Australia, the UK, and the US, which had backed Canada on the issue last year, again conveyed their support separately this week. Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade expressed concern on Wednesday about the allegations being investigated by Canada.

The United States on Tuesday backed Canada’s version of events regarding the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, stating that India has opted not to cooperate in the investigation. During a press briefing, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “We wanted to see the government of India cooperate with Canada in its investigation. Obviously, they have not chosen that path…”

Britain joined its Five Eyes intelligence partners on Wednesday in saying India’s cooperation with Canada’s legal process was “the right next step” in the deepening diplomatic row between the two countries, adding that it had full confidence in Canada’s judicial system, writes The Guardian. The Five Eyes (FVEY) is an Anglo sphere intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States,

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Canada had briefed New Zealand on the criminal investigation into violence against members of its South Asian community amid rising diplomatic tensions between India and Canada. “The alleged criminal conduct outlined publicly by Canadian law enforcement authorities, if proven, would be very concerning,” Mr. Peters said in a post on X.

Canada’s allegation gets instant support from the USA as India is faced with a similar charge from the United States for attempting to assassinate a Sikh separatist on its soil. In November 2023, the US Department of Justice announced charges against Indian national Nikhil Gupta over an alleged plot targeting Sikh American activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, claiming it was coordinated with an Indian government employee and others.

But unlike Trudeau, the White House of Joe Biden has consistently kept separate the on-going criminal case by US law enforcement, and US diplomacy with India, which has been accorded the highest priority. Analysts believe that the US and its Anglo-American allies want India on their side as a counterweight against China in the Indo-Pacific. So they have all tried to overlook Ottawa’s sensational accusations beyond offering token support.

Genesis of the problem

India’s relation with Canada became acerbic since 1974 after India conducted its first nuclear test. Canada expressed outrage, fearing the potential use of Canadian technology in India’s nuclear program. When India conducted further tests in 1998, the relationship soured even more.

Old documents reveal that this is not the first time that India and Canada have locked horns over an issue connected to the Khalistan movement in Canada. The tussle goes back to 1982 when the then PM Indira Gandhi spoke her mind on the subject to Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau, who was Canada’s Prime Minister then. Canada was a safe haven for Khalistan supporters and militant voices accused of terrorism in India since at least 1982. In January that year, Surjan Singh Gill, born in Singapore and raised in India and England, established the ‘Khalistan government in exile’ office in Vancouver. He even issued blue Khalistani passports and colourful currency notes. However, he garnered limited support among local Sikhs, with some of his activists displaying Khalistan posters being beaten up during a Vaisakhi procession in April. The same year, Pierre Trudeau declined to extradite Talwinder Singh Parmar, accused of killing two police officers in Punjab. A Canadian journalist Terry Milewski documented this in his book Blood for Blood: Fifty Years of the Global Khalistan Project (2021), noting that the Canadian response to the Khalistani challenge was criticised by Indian politicians, including Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, reports the Indian Express.

During the 1980s, numerous militants sought refuge in Canada, including Talwinder Singh Parmar, a key figure in the Khalistani movement. Despite India’s requests for his extradition, the Trudeau government did not act, leading to heightened resentment. The situation escalated tragically with the bombing of Air India Flight 182 (Kanishka) on June 23, 1985, which resulted in the deaths of all 329 people on board.

It may be recalled that India and Canada have been entangled in an abysmal dispute since the June, 2023 assassination of prominent Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar by masked gunmen outside a Sikh temple in Vancouver. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told his country’s parliament last year that officials had “credible” evidence of an Indian government connection to the murder. Nijjar (45), a member of the so-called pro-Khalistan movement, had organised an informal referendum in Canada to call for an independent Sikh nation within the borders of Punjab before he was killed. The entire Khalistan statehood movement has been designated a terrorist organisation by India, and Nijjar’s name appeared on the Indian Home Affairs terror watch-list prior to his killing. His murder sparked widespread protests by the Sikh community in Canada and in India, many of whom also blamed India’s government for the assassination,

Before the present diplomatic row, in May 2024, a preliminary report prepared by Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission had identified India as one of the foreign actors that interfered with Canada’s federal general elections in 2019 and 2021. The report also named China as “a main perpetrator of foreign interference against Canada” and Pakistan for its interest in “Canada-based groups and individuals that can be leveraged as proxy agents against India.” Canada was first alerted to the possibility of foreign interference following reports of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and the 2017 French presidential election. The Foreign Interference Commission (FIC) defines foreign interference as “clandestine, deceptive, or personally threatening activities by a foreign state, or those acting on its behalf that are detrimental to the interests of Canada.”

India’s response

India has rejected Canada’s allegations, terming it “absurd” and “politically motivated.” Calling out “the political agenda of Justin Trudeau’s government”, in a strongly worded rebuttal, India issued a statement saying, “The Government of India strongly rejects these preposterous imputations and ascribes them to the political agenda of the Trudeau Government that is centred on vote bank politics.”

India’s Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday that Canada had presented “no evidence whatsoever” to support its “serious allegations” that Indian government agents had targeted Canada-based Sikh separatists, including naturalised Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India has accused Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of “cavalier behaviour” amid the on-going diplomatic fallout over last year’s murder of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil.

In the last few months, Justin Trudeau has faced a series of political setbacks. Political analysts believe that what has been alarming for him is that he has lost the support of his key ally, Jagmeet Singh’s party. Singh openly professes for

‘Khalistan’. A defeat in Toronto in late June reinforced the perception that Liberal prospects in the next national election are dim. Though the mandate for Trudeau’s minority government expires at the end of October 2025, an early election has become increasingly likely. It is believed that the spat with India on sovereignty issues will improve his chance of re-election. The Indian diaspora, mostly of Sikh ethnicity, is considered an influential bloc in Canada’s politics.

The Bishnoi gang

A crime gang which operates from Gujarat has been accused of its involvement in the murder of a Sikh separatist in Canada. The gang is suspected in the killing of a wildly popular Sikh rapper Sidhu Moose Wala in 2022. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has said that India was using “organised crime elements” to target members of the South Asian diaspora and Sikh separatists. RCMP has categorically named the “Bishnoi Group”—India’s most notorious crime syndicate, headed by Lawrence Bishnoi. The gang claims to be the representatives of the Bishnoi Hindu sect from the deserts of Rajasthan.

The Bishnoi gang has issued death threats against Bollywood star Salman Khan to avenge his hunting of two antelopes, which the Bishnoi community considers to be reincarnations of their guru. Two members of the gang were arrested by Indian police in April for firing at Khan’s home in Mumbai. The actor was unhurt.

More recently, Bishnoi’s gang claimed responsibility for the murder of a 66-year-old Muslim politician, Baba Siddique, in Mumbai’s posh Bandra area last weekend. A three-time legislator and former minister in the Maharashtra state government, he was widely known for his closeness with Bollywood celebrities, most notably with actor Salman Khan. Bishnoi’s feud with Khan goes back nearly twenty six years over the actor’s killing of two antelopes on a recreational hunting trip in Rajasthan while shooting a film in the western state in 1998. The Bishnoi religious sect considers the species sacred.

Lawrence Bishnoi (31)—born in a wealthy farmer’s family in Punjab—is an exceptionally fair and good-looking person whom the noted film director Ramgopal Verma claimed that he knows not even a “single film star” as good looking as the gangster. It is reported that the filmmaker has been toying with the idea of a biopic on Lawrence. However, the analysts are of the opinion that the Hindu fundamentalists wanted to use Lawrence to challenge the dominance of Muslim actors (in three Khans—Salman, Amir and Shahrukh) of the Mumbai film industry.

Lawrence Bishnoi is currently being held in jail in Gujarat but is reportedly running his operations from there without any hindrance. Even though he is wanted for murder in states like Punjab and Maharashtra, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an order that he cannot be shifted from Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad to other states for questioning. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) invoked a little-known, little-used rule under the Criminal Procedure Code last year to ensure Bishnoi would remain in custody in Gujarat, and has recently renewed its order for another year. In March 2023, he was allowed to give a television interview despite being in police custody (in Punjab at the time), in which he said, “I am not anti-national. I am a nationalist. I am against Khalistan. I am against Pakistan.”

Observations

It is observed that despite political tensions, trade and investment ties between India and Canada have not been impacted. Nonetheless, both the governments must act sensibly to avoid any further escalation of tension.

Canada should appreciate that the Khalistan movement is a very sensitive issue to India. During the 1980s, thousands of Indians in the states of Punjab and Delhi were killed in that movement. One of the Indian Prime Ministers was assassinated by Khalistani terrorists.

It appears that the Ministry of External Affairs is under stress due to lack of any proper direction. During the last couple of years, India’s confused foreign policy has earned bad names for the nation. Last year, eight former Indian Naval force personnel, convicted of “espionage”, were given the death punishment in Qatar, though this was later revoked. And in September this year, the Bangladesh Government, in a strongly worded message, has called on the Indian Government to advise political leaders to refrain from making slanderous and unacceptable remarks. Bangladesh was reacting to Home Minister Amit Shah’s comments regarding the issue of cross-border migration into India from neighbouring countries.

The Prime Minister should advise his ministers to refrain from intervening in sensitive foreign policy issues.

Views expressed are personal