Roving Periscope: India tightens screws, asks Canada to pull back 41 diplomats by Oct 10

Virendra Pandit 

New Delhi: After waiting for Canada to take concrete steps against the Khalistanis, criminals, and drug peddlers it has sheltered over the years, India warned it again on Tuesday and asked the North American country to pull out 41 of its diplomats deployed in the country by October 10, the media reported.

As their bilateral relations hit a new low, India has also threatened to strip off the diplomatic immunity of any Canadian diplomat if they remained in the country after October 10, The Financial Times stated in a report.

Canada has 62 diplomats in its High Commission in New Delhi. Earlier, India had asked Canada to downsize this strength by 41.

The Indian and Canadian foreign ministries did not, however, immediately react to the report.

External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said earlier there was a “climate of violence” and an “atmosphere of intimidation” against Indian diplomats in Canada, where the presence of Sikh separatist groups has frustrated New Delhi.

On September 18, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed in his Parliament—but failed to provide any evidence since—that India might be involved in the killing of a Canadian Sikh Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil in June. Canadian security agencies had been actively pursuing “credible allegations of a potential link” between Indian government agents and the killing of Nijjar, he said.

Thereafter, it expelled an Indian diplomat. In a tit-for-tat, India also expelled a Canadian diplomat, and later suspended visa services indefinitely in Canada. Their bilateral relations have since nosedived like never before.

Canada is home to over 780,000 Sikhs, the community’s highest population outside the northern Indian state of Punjab, and New Delhi has for decades expressed its displeasure with some community members’ outspoken support for the so-called Khalistan.

Canada’s House of Commons has 15 Sikh members, more than 4 percent of the seats, while the community comprises only about 2 percent of the Canadian population.

In 2020, India accused Nijjar of making “hateful speeches” and “seditionary and insurrectionary imputations” and designated him as being “involved in terrorism”.

Canada has been in a fix as none of its Western allies has openly supported its claims and allegations. PM Trudeau is himself isolated in his own country as the Opposition has also questioned him for failing to produce evidence to support his claims.

The desperation in Canada shows.

“Declaring more Canadian diplomats personae non gratae wouldn’t help the situation and would make reducing the emotions associated with this disagreement more difficult,” Peter Boehm, chair of the Canadian Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

India saw Canada as “an easy mark,”, he said, and added that New Delhi was aware of Ottawa’s limited capacity to retaliate since the latter has a minority government.

PM Trudeau, who leads the ruling Liberal Party, shares power with Indian-origin and Canadian Sikh leader Jagmeet Singh, who heads the pro-Khalistani New Democratic Party (NDP).

“India knows our capacity to retaliate is limited, that we have a minority government, and is aware of the consequent politics at play. And, of course, India has an election on the horizon,” Boehms was quoted by The Financial Times as saying.

On previous occasions, India has said it wanted an equal number of diplomats posted in both countries on a reciprocal basis. At its high commission in Delhi, Canada has more diplomats posted compared to what India has in Ottawa.

India, which designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020, had outrightly rejected Canada’s allegations, calling them “absurd” and “motivated.” The fugitive chief of the banned Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) was shot dead outside a Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, in June in what seemed to be a gang war.

On September 26, External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, in a veiled attack, asked the UN member states not to allow “political convenience” to determine responses to terrorism, extremism, and violence. He made the comments while addressing the 78th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.