A senior Canadian diplomat has been ordered to depart India inside 5 days, the Indian international ministry stated, hours after Ottawa expelled an Indian diplomat in an escalating rift over the killing of a Sikh separatist earlier this yr.
New Delhi’s resolution mirrored its “rising concern on the interference of Canadian diplomats in our inside issues and their involvement in anti-India actions”, the ministry stated in a press release on Tuesday.
The duelling expulsions come as relations between Canada and India are tense. Commerce talks have been derailed and Canada simply cancelled a commerce mission to India that was deliberate later this yr.
Protests by pro-Sikh independence teams in Canada have angered Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities.
Ottawa on Monday stated it was “actively pursuing credible allegations” linking Indian authorities brokers to the homicide of Sikh separatist chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar exterior a cultural centre in Surrey, British Columbia on June 18.
Nijjar was reportedly organising an unofficial referendum in India for an impartial Sikh nation on the time of this demise.
India dismissed the Canadian accusation as “absurd and motivated” and urged it to as an alternative take authorized motion towards anti-Indian parts working from its soil.
Sikh separatist motion
Final yr, the Indian authorities introduced a money reward for data resulting in Nijjar’s arrest, accusing him of involvement in an alleged assault on a Hindu priest in India.
The Sikh independence motion, generally known as the Khalistan motion, is banned in India, the place officers see it and affiliated teams as a nationwide safety risk. However the motion nonetheless has some help in northern India, in addition to international locations reminiscent of Canada and the United Kingdom, that are residence to a large Sikh diaspora.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed the parliament on Monday he introduced up Nijjar’s killing with Modi on the Group of 20 (G20) summit in New Delhi final week. He stated he instructed Modi that any Indian authorities involvement can be unacceptable and that he requested for cooperation within the investigation.
“Any involvement of a international authorities within the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” he stated. “Within the strongest potential phrases, I proceed to induce the federal government of India to cooperate with Canada to unravel this matter.”
On Tuesday, the MEA launched a press release dismissing the allegation and saying Trudeau had made comparable allegations to Modi.
“Such unsubstantiated allegations search to shift the main focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who’ve been supplied shelter in Canada and proceed to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the assertion stated, referring to the proposed autonomous Sikh homeland.
Canadian International Minister Melanie Joly stated a high diplomat, who she stated was the pinnacle of Indian intelligence in Canada, was expelled as a consequence.
“If confirmed true, this may be an incredible violation of our sovereignty and of essentially the most fundamental rule of how international locations take care of one another,” Joly stated. “As a consequence, we now have expelled a high Indian diplomat.”
Canada has a Sikh inhabitants of greater than 770,000, or about 2 p.c of its whole inhabitants.
Hartosh Bal, govt editor of The Caravan journal in India, instructed Al Jazeera the Sikh separatist motion has been non-existent for many years however the Modi authorities has “constantly puffed up” the Khalistani risk to India.
“The Khalistani motion has an extended historical past and in the course of the Nineteen Eighties, there was a violent army motion on Indian soil. However ever since – at the very least in India, within the state of Punjab, the place the Sikhs are the bulk – the Khalistan motion has been nearly non-existent, enjoys no political help and goes up and down relying on the eye the Indian authorities pays to it,” Bal stated.
“This consideration has gone up significantly for the reason that Modi authorities got here to energy in 2014. It does have robust roots each in Canada and the UK, the place issues like referendums are held, however provided that the overwhelming majority of Sikhs are on Indian soil and aren’t individuals on this referendum, these might have ideally been simply ignored,” he added.
Bal stated the Khalistan situation fits Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) domestically to speak about safety threats to the nation, “fairly than the precise measure of risk on the bottom from the motion”.
Nijjar spoke of ‘risk to his life’
Canadian opposition New Democrat chief Jagmeet Singh, who’s himself Sikh, stated he grew up listening to tales that difficult India’s report on human rights would possibly forestall you from getting a visa to journey there.
“However to listen to the prime minister of Canada corroborate a possible hyperlink between a homicide of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil by a international authorities is one thing I might by no means have imagined,” Singh stated.
At the moment we realized of allegations that brokers of the Indian Authorities murdered Hardeep Singh Nijjar — a Canadian killed on Canadian soil.
To all Canadians, that is my vow.
I’ll go away no stone unturned within the pursuit of justice, together with holding Narendra Modi accountable.
— Jagmeet Singh (@theJagmeetSingh) September 18, 2023
British Columbia Premier David Eby stated he obtained a briefing from Canada’s spy company in regards to the “assassination” of Nijjar and he was “deeply disturbed” by what he was instructed.
The World Sikh Group of Canada known as Nijjar an outspoken supporter of Khalistan who “usually led peaceable protests towards the violation of human rights actively happening in India and in help of Khalistan”.
“Nijjar had publicly spoken of the risk to his life for months and stated that he was focused by Indian intelligence companies,” the assertion stated.
Nijjar’s New York-based lawyer, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, has stated Nijjar was warned by Canadian intelligence officers about being focused for assassination by “mercenaries” earlier than he was gunned down, The Related Press information company reported.
Indian authorities have focused Sikh separatism for the reason that Nineteen Eighties, when an armed rebel for an impartial Sikh state started in Punjab state.
In 1984, Indian forces stormed the Golden Temple within the state’s Amritsar metropolis to flush out Sikh separatists who had taken refuge there. The controversial operation killed about 400, in keeping with official figures, though Sikh teams estimate the toll to be larger.
The prime minister who ordered the raid, Indira Gandhi, was assassinated afterwards by two of her bodyguards who have been Sikh. Her demise triggered a collection of anti-Sikh riots, through which Hindu mobs went from home to accommodate throughout northern India, pulling Sikhs from their houses, hacking many to demise and burning others alive.
Modi’s authorities has intensified the pursuit of Sikh separatists. When farmers camped out on the sides of New Delhi to protest towards proposed agriculture legal guidelines in 2021, Modi’s authorities initially tried to discredit Sikh individuals by dismissing their issues by calling them “Khalistanis”.
Police additionally arrested a 22-year-old local weather activist for supporting the protesting farmers and accused her of being in contact with Sikh independence supporters.
Earlier this yr, supporters of the Khalistan motion vandalised Indian consulates in London and San Francisco. In April, Indian police arrested a frontrunner who had develop into common for speeches that known as for an impartial Sikh homeland after a monthlong hunt.