India tourist visa is seen in a passport in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, on March 17, 2022.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
India suspended visa applications in Canada on Thursday attributable to unspecified security threats, while demanding Ottawa reduce its diplomatic staffing in India on grounds of interference in domestic affairs in an escalation of the festering diplomatic crisis between the 2 countries.
The feud was sparked Monday by the Canadian government’s announcement of “credible allegations” the Indian government orchestrated the extra-judicial slaying of a Sikh separatist in Canada. Latest Delhi had slammed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claims as “baseless” and “absurd” and accused Ottawa of being sympathetic to anti-India causes.
“The difficulty isn’t about travel to India — those that have valid visas and different kinds of document like OCI are free to travel to India — but the difficulty is of incitement of violence and the creation of an environment that disrupt the functioning of our high commission and consulates,” Arindam Bagchi, the official spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said at a daily news conference in Latest Delhi on Thursday.
OCI is brief for Overseas Citizenship of India, a type of everlasting residence for people of Indian origin that grants a lifetime of entry into the country, together with some advantages.Â
The move will curtail Indian travel for Canadians, even in the event that they apply in third countries, Bagchi said, adding that this temporary suspension will involve all visas, including e-visas. He said this example will likely be reviewed regularly.
This suspension follows a travel advisory urging Indian nationals to “exercise utmost caution” while traveling in Canada and a reciprocal expulsion of senior diplomats.Â
“Now we have seen Canadian diplomatic interference in our internal affairs, this can be a factor that is been taken into consideration for looking for parity in strength and rank equivalence … in our mutual diplomatic presence,” Bagchi added, without elaborating. “Their numbers listed below are very much higher than ours in Canada. The small print are being worked out.”
Bagchi’s announcement got here hours after the Canadian High Commission in Latest Delhi said it could “temporarily adjust staff presence” within the country after a few of its diplomats received threats on social media platforms.
Thursday’s developments represent a major escalation in tensions between India and Canada as Latest Delhi pressed its case.
No specific information
The Canadian government is investigating allegations that Indian government agents could also be connected to the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a naturalized Canadian and distinguished advocate for an independent Sikh homeland often called Khalistan.
“No specific information has been shared by Canada on this case,” Bagchi said. “Now we have conveyed to the Canadian side, made it clear to them that we’re willing to have a look at any specific information provided to us, but to date we have not received any specific information.”
In chatting with reporters Thursday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in Latest York, Trudeau repeated assertions he first shared Monday.
“I feel it’s extremely necessary that as a rustic with a robust and independent justice system, that we allow those justice processes to unfold themselves with the utmost integrity,” said the Canadian leader.
“But I can assure you the choice to share these allegations on the ground of the House of Commons Monday morning was not done calmly … it was done with the utmost seriousness,” Trudeau added.
A security personnel stands guard outside the Canadian High-Commision in Latest Delhi, India, September 19, 2023.Â
Adnan Abidi | Reuters
Trudeau did indirectly address a series of questions on the character of the evidence, if he would share the evidence publicly, if Canada has any plans to reciprocate with tit-for-tat motion in response to India’s suspension of visa services in Canada or the seeming lack of public support amongst its allies for Ottawa in its standoff with India.
“We call upon the federal government of India to take seriously this matter and to work with us to shed full transparency and ensure accountability and justice on this matter,” he said.
“We’re a rustic of the rule of law. We’re going to proceed to do the work crucial to maintain Canadians secure and to uphold our values and the international rules-based order. That is our focus without delay,” Trudeau added.
Sikh separatism
Canada is home to the most important Sikh population outside of the northern Indian state of Punjab.
Sikh separatist Nijjar was reportedly helping to prepare an unofficial global referendum among the many Sikh diaspora when he was killed on June 18 by two masked gunmen within the parking zone of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, the Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, where he was president.
Latest Delhi had labeled him a terrorist in 2020, accusing him of plotting multiple targeted murders through the years, charges that Nijjar had denied. He had settled in suburban Vancouver and ran a plumbing business after apparently first migrating from India within the Nineties and gaining citizenship in March 2015.
“From our side, very specific details about criminal activities by individuals based on Canadian soil have been shared to the Canadian authorities regularly, but not been acted upon,” Bagchi said.
“There’s a level of prejudice here. They’ve made the allegations, they’ve taken motion on them. To us, it appears these allegations by the federal government of Canada are politically driven,” Bagchi added, without elaborating.
While Canada views peaceful Sikh activism as a part of free expression, India views Canada’s continued tolerance as an endorsement of Sikh separatism that it regards as an infringement on its domestic affairs.
Under the leadership of the Congress Party, India eventually crushed the bloody insurgency that shook the country within the Seventies and Eighties when the minority Sikhs agitated for an independent Sikh homeland in Punjab, claiming hundreds of lives in the method. Sikh bodyguards were convicted of the 1984 assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Given the memories of the past, there are fears of a revival within the Sikh separatist movement, which has deep roots since India gained independence within the late Forties.
A poster of the previous Gurdwara President Hardeep Singh Nijjar is displayed on a fence outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, on September 19, 2023.
Don Mackinnon | Afp | Getty Images
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had on June 8 condemned online video footage of a parade float within the Canadian city of Brampton that glorified violence and vengeance in its depiction of the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
“That Canadian political figures have openly expressed sympathy for such elements stays a matter of deep concern,” India’s Foreign Ministry said in a separate statement Tuesday. “The space given in Canada to a variety of illegal activities including murders, human trafficking and arranged crime isn’t latest.”
This issue can be flaring up at a time when the Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, has been accused of marginalizing minorities within the country.
Growing global concern
The deepening rift between India and Canada is concerning Ottawa’s closest allies — Australia, the UK and the US. If allegations are true, this will well derail the U.S. courtship of India as a partner in a broader Indo-Pacific strategy geared toward countering China.
U.S national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters Thursday the U.S. is in “continuous communication” with Canada and involved “at high levels” with India on the dispute between each countries, declining to elaborate any further.
Because it stands, Canada halted trade talks with India ahead of the recent Group of 20 nations leaders’ summit in Latest Delhi, where Trudeau said he raised the difficulty of Nijjar’s murder along with his Indian counterpart.
In a banner yr for Indian diplomacy that also saw the world’s most populous nation tackle the rotating presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Modi took the chance to turn the normally sedate G20 presidency right into a branding vehicle to burnish India as a key global player advocating the interests of the Global South, while serving as an interlocutor with the developed nations.
“Look, if there’s any country — for those who are talking about reputational issues and reputational damage — if there’s any country that needs to have a look at this, it’s Canada and its growing repute as a spot, as a shelter for terrorists, for extremists and for organized crime,” Bagchi said.
— CNBC’s Naman Tandon contributed to this text.
