New Delhi: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s continued support for Khalistani separatism and his unproven allegations against India has eventually led New Delhi to downgrade diplomatic relations with Ottawa.
A diplomatic communication received from Canada on Sunday wherein it was mentioned that Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and other Indian diplomats were ‘persons of interest’ in an investigation into the killing of a Sikh separatist leader Harjit Singh Nijjar in June last year on Canadian soil became the last straw for New Delhi.
On Monday, India responded with a strongly-worded statement wherein it described the Canadian allegations as “preposterous imputations” and ascribed these to the political agenda of the Trudeau government that is centered around vote bank politics. By evening, the External Affairs Ministry summoned Canadian Charge d’Affaires Stewart Wheeler and informed him that “the baseless targeting of the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely unacceptable”.
“It was underlined that in an atmosphere of extremism and violence, the Trudeau Government’s actions endangered their safety,” Ministry said in a statement. “We have no faith in the current Canadian government’s commitment to ensure their security. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials.”
Soon after, the Ministry issued another statement informing about the Government of India’s decision to expel Charge d’Affaires Wheeler and five other senior Canadian diplomats from the country. The flurry of events on Monday marked the culmination of a more than a year of charges and counter charges between the two countries after Trudeau alleged in the Canadian parliament in September last year that there was an Indian hand in the killing of Nijjar.
New Delhi dismissed Trudeau’s allegations as “absurd and motivated”.
“Such unsubstantiated allegations seek to shift the focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India's sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the External Affairs Ministry had said in a statement at that time.
According to former Indian diplomat Amit Dasgupta, Trudeau has exceeded all norms of diplomacy by going public with his unproven allegations against India.
“Justin Trudeau is following the legacy of his father and former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau,” Dasgupta told ETV Bharat. “Pierre Trudeau was also very anti-India.”
In 1982, it is worth mentioning here, Pierre Trudeau, as the Prime Minister, had declined India’s request for the extradition of wanted Khalistani terrorist Talwinder Parmar, the then head of the Babbar Khalsa. Under Pierre Trudeau’s protection, Parmar went on to mastermind the 1985 bombing of the Air India plane Kanishka off the coast of Ireland that killed 329 people, the worst aviation terror attack before 9/11.
While the Khalistan separatist movement has largely died down in India, it has been highly internalised by a minuscule section of the Sikh population in Canada. Such activities of a section of the Canadian Sikh diaspora population that have espoused the Khalistan sentiments have been a major reason for the deterioration of India–Canada ties.
India generally maintains diplomatic relations with most countries across the globe, and instances of downgrading or cutting off diplomatic ties are rare. However, there have been some notable instances where India severed or suspended its diplomatic relations with specific countries, often due to political, military, or ideological conflicts.
By downgrading diplomatic ties with Canada citing terrorism-related issues, India has, in a way, put the North American country in the same league as Pakistan, a country with which New Delhi also has downgraded diplomatic relations. In February 2019, after the Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed perpetrated the attack in Pulwama that claimed the lives of 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) India and Pakistan recalled their respective high commissioners for “consultations” in a tit-for-tat measure. Then, in August that same year, after the revocation of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan expelled the Indian high commissioner from Islamabad and recalled its own high commissioner from New Delhi. Though ties remain extremely strained, both the countries still maintain low-level diplomatic channels through their missions.
Earlier too, India-Pakistan diplomatic relations have seen ups and downs. After the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, diplomatic relations between the two countries were suspended for quite some time. Bilateral relations again soured after the 1999 Kargil conflict, but communication was not completely severed. Then again, after the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament carried out by Pakistan-based terrorists, diplomatic relations were suspended for nearly two years.
However, Pakistan was not the first country with which India had downgraded or suspended diplomatic ties. Way back in 1946, even before its Independence, India became the first country to sever trade relations with the apartheid government in South Africa. India subsequently imposed a complete - diplomatic, commercial, cultural and sports - embargo on South Africa. India worked consistently to put the issue of apartheid on the agenda of the UN, Non-Aligned Movement and other multilateral organisations and for the imposition of comprehensive international sanctions against South Africa. The African National Congress (ANC), which was fighting against apartheid, was allowed to maintain a representative office in New Delhi from the 1960s onwards.
According Dasgupta, India’s cutting off diplomatic ties with South Africa was part of New Delhi’s principled position against apartheid.
“India’s foreign policy was anti-apartheid,” Dasgupta told ETV Bharat. “We fought against colonialism because we believed it was an unjust system. India believed apartheid had no place in the world.”
The severing of ties was symbolic of India’s opposition to racial discrimination and support for the liberation of oppressed peoples in South Africa. Relations were restored only in 1994 after the fall of apartheid and the establishment of a democratic government under Nelson Mandela. India and South Africa now share strong diplomatic and trade relations.
It was based on this same ideology that India did not recognise Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), a white-minority regime that declared independence from Britain in 1965, and severed all contacts with it. India consistently condemned Rhodesia’s white-minority rule and supported efforts to isolate the regime globally. New Delhi only established diplomatic relations with Zimbabwe in 1980 after the country’s independence and the establishment of a majority-rule government under Robert Mugabe.
Though India and Israel enjoy very close diplomatic relations today, this was not the case in most part of the 20th century after the Jewish nation came into existence in 1948. Though India announced its recognition of Israel in 1950, India’s initial foreign policy, influenced by its support for the Palestinian cause and its large Muslim population, led to a reluctance in formalising diplomatic ties with Israel. However, behind the scenes, Israel and India maintained some military and intelligence cooperation. Full diplomatic ties were established in 1992, and the relationship has since grown stronger, particularly in the areas of defense, technology, and trade.
In 1950, India severed diplomatic relations with Portugal due to Portugal’s refusal to relinquish control of its colonies in India, particularly Goa, Daman, and Diu. Goa was a Portuguese colony, and Portugal refused to negotiate its return to India after India's Independence in 1947.
India attempted peaceful negotiations with Portugal for several years. However, when diplomatic efforts failed, India launched a military operation in 1961 (Operation Vijay) to liberate Goa, Daman, and Diu from Portuguese rule. Diplomatic relations remained severed until the Portuguese Carnation Revolution in 1974, which led to the restoration of democracy in Portugal and the normalisation of relations with India.
In 1987, following two military coups in Fiji overthrew the government in which Indo-Fijians (ethnic Indians) held significant political power. The coups were perceived as racially motivated against the Indo-Fijian community, who constituted a large part of Fiji’s population and had a significant political presence.
In May 1990, India shut down its High Commission and Indian Cultural Centre in Fiji in view of these political developments. It was only in March 1999, after the general elections in Fiji which saw Mahendra Chaudhry assuming office as the first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister, did India reopen its High Commission. Subsequently, the Indian Cultural Centre was reopened in February 2005. Fiji established its High Commission in New Delhi in January 2004.
Another country with which India has currently suspended diplomatic relations is Afghanistan because of the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021. However, in this case, it is not just India. Many other countries of the world also do not recognise the Taliban regime. Earlier too, during the Afghan civil war and the Taliban regime in the 1990s, diplomatic ties between India and Afghanistan had diminished.
