Relations on brink, both expel each other’s diplomats after Canada blames India for killing of Khalistani extremist

New Delhi has stated that expelling a senior diplomat from Canada adds to the growing concern of India over the interference of Canadian diplomats in its internal matters.

Ottawa and New Delhi expelled each other’s diplomats on Tuesday as the relations between the two reached on the brink with Canada alleging the role of India in the killing of a Khalistani Sikh extremist in the North American country.

After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lent credence to the allegation of secessionist organisation Sikhs for Justice about New Delhi’s role in the killing of the ‘Khalistan Tiger Force’ commander Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, his government announced the expulsion of an official of the High Commission of India in Ottawa. New Delhi retaliated a few hours later and summoned Canada’s High Commissioner to India, Cameron MacKay, to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) early on Tuesday.

It also expelled a senior diplomat of Canada from India. It stated that the action reflected the growing concern of the government of India over the interference of the diplomats of Canada in internal matters of India and their involvement in anti-India activities.

“Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Trudeau said at the House of Commons – the lower house of Canadian Parliament – on Monday. “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty. It is contrary to the fundamental rules by which free, open and democratic societies conduct themselves.”

New Delhi dismissed the Canadian Prime Minister’s allegations against the Government of India as ‘absurd’ and ‘motivated’. It stated that the “unsubstantiated allegations” about the role of India in the “act of violence” were intended to shift the focus from the shelter being provided to the terrorists and extremists in Canada.

Ottawa expelled Pavan Kumar Rai, who was in charge of coordination and community affairs at the High Commission of India in the capital of Canada.

Trudeau’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Melanie Joly, said that the expelled diplomat was in charge of India’s external intelligence agency, Research and Analytical Wing, in Canada. She, however, did not name him while announcing the decision to expel him. But her office apparently later leaked his name to media.

Sources identified the Canadian diplomat expelled by India as Olivier Sylvestre. Though Sylvestre was working as a diplomat at the High Commission of Canada in New Delhi, he was in fact overseeing his country’s intelligence operations in India, sources said.

Nijjar had been living in Canada since the late 1990s but had been one of the most wanted fugitives of India. He had been accused in several cases in India, including the 2007 blast that killed six and injured around 40 people at Ludhiana in Punjab. He had also been accused of being involved in the assassination of Rashtriya Sikh Sangat president Rulda Singh at Patiala in 2009.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) of the Government of India had in July 2022 declared a bounty of Rs 10 lakh on Nijjar, who had not only been the commander of the terrorist organisation Khalistan Tiger Force but had also been involved with the Sikhs for Justice (SFJ). He had been heading the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, Surrey at Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada, till his murder on June 18.

The SFJ over the past few months circulated flyers with pictures of India’s envoy to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, and other senior diplomats posted in the country, identifying them as ‘killers’ of Nijjar. It ran similar campaigns in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.

The relations between New Delhi and Ottawa came under stress in the past few years over the campaign by the pro-Khalistani Sikh organisations against India in Canada. New Delhi has been conveying its concerns to Ottawa over the Trudeau Government’s alleged reluctance to act against the extremists and terrorists sheltered in Canada and posing a threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.

“As you would expect, we have been working closely and coordinating with our allies on this very serious matter,” the Canadian Prime Minister told the House of Commons. The media outlets later quoted sources to report that Trudeau had discussed New Delhi’s alleged role in the killing of the Khalistani Sikh extremist with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron and United States President Joe Biden, who he had during the G20 summit in New Delhi on September 9 and 10.

Trudeau had held a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sideline of the G20 summit. A press release issued by the MEA in New Delhi on September 10 had stated that Modi had conveyed to Trudeau India’s “strong concerns” over the continuing activities of the extremists in Canada.

Trudeau told the House of Commons in Ottawa that he had conveyed to Modi “personally and directly” and “in no uncertain terms” his government’s “deep concerns” about the alleged links of the agents of the Government of India with the killing of Nijjar, who was a citizen of Canada. He added that Canada had also taken it up with the top intelligence security officials of India.

The MEA in New Delhi stated that Modi had completely rejected Trudeau’s allegations during the meeting on the sideline of the G20 summit. “We are a democratic polity with a strong commitment to the rule of law,” Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the MEA in New Delhi, said in a statement.

“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,” he added, referring to Ottawa’s allegation about the involvement of India in the killing of a citizen of Canada. “We reject any attempts to connect the Government of India to such developments.”

“The inaction of the Canadian Government on this matter (anti-India activities of the Khalistanis in Canada) has been a long-standing and continuing concern,” the MEA spokesperson said. “That Canadian political figures have openly expressed sympathy for such elements remains a matter of deep concern.”

New Delhi stated that the space given in Canada to a range of illegal activities including murders, human trafficking and organised crime was not new. “We urge the Government of Canada to take prompt and effective legal action against all anti-India elements operating from their soil,” the MEA stated.