New Delhi: India-Canada relations which have been frosty at best in recent years have now plunged to a new low after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of having a hand in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar earlier this year and expelled a senior Indian diplomat. India responded by expelling a senior Canadian diplomat posted in New Delhi.
New Delhi also 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 said in a statement.
“The inaction of the Canadian government on this matter has been a long-standing and continuing concern. That Canadian political figures have openly expressed sympathy for such elements remains a matter of deep concern.”
Canada providing a safe haven to Khalistani separatists is the biggest sore point in the ties between New Delhi and Ottawa. Though the issue has been festering for decades, it erupted during Justin Trudeau’s tenure as Prime Minister. Even as this report is being written, what was described as a “diplomatic row” between India and Canada has blown up into a full-fledged diplomatic war with the External Affairs Ministry issuing an advisory to Indian citizens traveling to or staying in Canada.
“In view of growing anti-India activities and politically-condoned hate crimes and criminal violence in Canada, all Indian nationals there and those contemplating travel are urged to exercise utmost caution,” the advisory stated. “Recently, threats have particularly targeted Indian diplomats and sections of the Indian community who oppose the anti-India agenda. Indian nationals are therefore advised to avoid travelling to regions and potential venues in Canada that have seen such incidents.”
These kinds of advisories are usually issued for Indians travelling to or staying in war-torn countries in West Asia or Africa. But Canada, a developed nation and member of the G7 developed nations’ bloc? Given that India and Canada share a Strategic Partnership “underpinned by shared values of democracy and pluralism”, then how come things have come to such a pass?
With nearly 1.6 million persons of Indian origin (PIOs) and an additional 700,000 NRIs, Canada hosts one of the largest Indian diaspora in the world, which accounts for more than 3 per cent of its total population. The diaspora, whose main concentration is in the Greater Toronto Area, the Greater Vancouver Area, Montreal (Quebec), Calgary (Alberta), Ottawa (Ontario) and Winnipeg (Manitoba) has done well professionally and contributed to the Canadian economy and society.
Canada is also home to the world’s largest Sikh population outside India, They number around 770,000 and comprise around 2.1 per cent of that country’s population.
India established diplomatic relations with Canada soon after its Independence in 1947. In the 1940s and 1960s, Canada–India relations were enhanced because of the personal ties which developed between then-Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and then two Canadian Prime Ministers, Louis St. Laurent and Lester B. Pearson. At the United Nations (UN) and in the Commonwealth, on issues as diverse as the Korean War armistice and the Suez Crisis, there was a convergence of interest and commitment between India and Canada.
However, relations between India and Canada deteriorated in the wake of India's Smiling Buddha nuclear test of May 1974 when the Canadian government severed bilateral nuclear cooperation with both India and Pakistan in 1976 after claims that the fissionable material used to construct India's first nuclear weapon had been synthesised with the Canadian-supplied CIRUS nuclear research reactor.
But in 2010, the signing of the Nuclear Cooperation Agreement (NCA) between the two countries started a new era of engagement. A follow-on agreement was signed in 2015 to supply 3,000 metric tonnes of uranium concentrate to India under a five-year contract.
But the fact of the matter is that all these seemingly positive diplomatic developments have been happening in the backdrop of Canada providing a safe haven to Sikh separatists demanding a so-called Khalistan carved out of India. In 1858, Queen Victoria proclaimed that, throughout the then-British Empire, the people of India would enjoy equal privileges with white people without discrimination of colour, creed or race.
Since both Canada and India were under British rule, ex-army men from the British Indian Army, mainly from Punjab, migrated to Canada to start a new life. However, what awaited them was racism and discrimination. Many settled in Western Canada, which was sparsely populated at the time, and worked as law enforcement officers due to their military history. They also worked in forest clearing as lumberjacks and owned lumber mills.
The early Sikh immigrants to Canada sought to politically organise themselves, reacting to the anti-immigrant sentiments and discrimination they faced in the country. Social, economic and political developments in India that they thought affected the interests of the Sikhs like the declaration of Emergency in 1975 and the 1984 riots, further fuelled their political drive. Events such as the 1984 riots and the Golden Temple incident are frequently introduced in Canada’s provincial legislatures, often in the form of petitions. This has led to the regionalisation of Indo-Canadian politics.
In fact, Canada started being lenient with Sikh separatists well before the 1984 riots. In 1982, then Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, father of Justin Trudeau, 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.
With Justin Trudeau becoming the Prime Minister of Canada in 2015, matters went more south. He appointed three Sikhs of Indian origin to his cabinet - Harjit Sajjan, Navdeep Bains and Bardish Chagger. Three years later, in 2018, Trudeau had a disastrous bilateral visit to India. Ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trudeau’s trip turned into a fiasco when the Canadian High Commissioner invited Sikh extremist Jaspal Atwal to a dinner to honour Trudeau in Delhi. When this came into the public domain, the Canadian High Commission hastily rescinded the invitation. But the damage was already done.
After his reelection in 2019, apart from Sajjan, Bains and Chagger, Trudeau also inducted a first-time Hindu MP Anita Anand into his Cabinet. And then, in the 2021 parliamentary elections in Canada, Trudeau’s Liberal Party won 160 seats, 10 short of the majority figure of 170 required to form a government on its own. Following this, Trudeau’s party took the support of the New Democratic Party (NDP) which won 25 seats and formed the government. Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the NDP, is a known sympathiser of the Khalistani cause.
Relations between India and the Trudeau government have been frosty for Ottawa’s support to pro-Khalistani elements under the garb of liberalism and freedom of expression.
In June this year, a parade organised by pro-Khalistani groups in Ontario’s Greater Toronto area had a tableau that depicted former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination along with a sign saying that it was “Revenge for Attack on Shri Darbar Sahib”. In September last year, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi was vandalised in Ontario and the word “Khalistan” was inscribed on it. Then again the Sikh separatist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), which is banned in India, has been holding referendums for Khalistan in Canada.
Despite India’s protests, Canada’s response has been lacklustre. In fact, Trudeau chose to comment on India’s domestic issues like the farmers’ protest. This has added further fuel to the fire.
Trudeau’s allegations against India in the House of Commons on Monday came after his disastrous trip to India during the G20 Summit earlier this month. Of all the world leaders with whom he held bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reserved his most acerbic comments for the Canadian Prime Minister due to Ottawa’s support to Khalistani extremists.
“Prime Minister (Modi) highlighted that India-Canada relations are anchored in shared democratic values, respect for rule of law and strong people-to-people ties,” an External Affairs Ministry statement issued after the meeting between Modi and Trudeau read.
“He conveyed our strong concerns about continuing anti-India activities of extremist elements in Canada. They are promoting secessionism and inciting violence against Indian diplomats, damaging diplomatic premises, and threatening the Indian community in Canada and their places of worship. The nexus of such forces with organised crime, drug syndicates and human trafficking should be a concern for Canada as well. It is essential for the two countries to cooperate in dealing with such threats.”
This was followed by the pausing of trade talks between India and Canada earlier this month. Major items of India's exports to Canada include gems, jewellery and precious stones, pharmaceutical products, ready-made garments, mechanical appliances, organic chemicals, light engineering goods, and iron and steel goods. India’s imports from Canada include pulses, newsprint, wood pulp, asbestos, potash, iron scrap, copper, minerals and industrial chemicals.
The trade and investment linkages between India and Canada form an integral component of the relationship between the two countries. Bilateral trade in goods amounted to $10.50 billion in 2022 (India's exports stood at $6.40 billion and imports at $4.10 billion) which is well below the potential of the two countries’ relations. The bilateral trade in services in 2021 was $5.88 billion.
Now with the bilateral relations hitting a new low following Trudeau's allegations, what are the implications for India?
“We can’t say what the implications for India will be till the investigations (into the Hardeep Singh Nijjar killing) are completed by the Canadian authorities,” Robinder Sachdev, president of the Imagindia Institute and an expert on global strategic affairs, told ETV Bharat.
Sachdev said that though Trudeau had approached the leaders of the US, UK, France and Australia with his allegations ahead of the G20 Summit in New Delhi, they all told him to do his homework and come back. He added that till the Canadian authorities come up with solid evidence to substantiate Trudeau’s allegations, there will not be any immediate implications for India in the short term.
“However, till Trudeau remains in power, diplomatic relations between India and Canada will remain icy or worse,” Sachdev said. “But, at the same time, this will not have any impact on trade and investment. Canadian Pension Funds have invested heavily in India.”
Canadian Pension Funds have cumulatively invested over $55 billion in India and are increasingly viewing India as a favourable destination for investments. More than 600 Canadian companies have a presence in India and more than 1,000 companies are actively pursuing business in the Indian market. Indian companies in Canada are active in sectors such as information technology, software, steel, natural resources and banking.
Given the latest low in the bilateral relations, what will be implications be for the parliamentary elections to be held in India in 2024 and in Canada in 2025? “I think it will help Modi in the 2024 elections. It will be interesting to explore this issue,” Sachdev said.
Abhinav Pandey, founder and CEO of the Usanas Foundation think tank, told ETV Bharat that India is now economically strong.
“But Canada is not seeing the writing on the wall,” Pandey said. “It has got both Sikh and Islamist terrorism thriving within its territory. At the same time, it has become a playground for Chinese intelligence agencies.”
Also read: Matter serious, will affect Sikhs across world: SGPC on souring India-Canada ties
