Indo Canadian relations at an all-time low
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In 2023 Canada accused India of assassinating a Sikh separatist in Canada. The man killed was Hardeep Singh Nijjar who was gunned down by two masked men outside the gurdwara where he was the granthi. India reacted with wounded innocence. Dr Shashi Tharoor – no friend of the BJP – wrote ‘hello? The West assassinates people. India does not’. Dr Tharoor was lazily and dishonestly lumping Canada together with the United States. It is true that the USA used many drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But killing a foe in wartime is not quite the same as assassination which is an unlawful politically or religiously actuated slaying.
It is alleged by Ottawa that India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) shot dead a Canadian citizen of Indian stock. He had previously been imprisoned in India for his seditious activities. India suspected him of financing and orchestrating terrorist activity in India. Some Indians may regard killing an Indian traitor as justified. However, Nijjar was not an Indian citizen at the time of his death. He was a Canadian; India does not permit dual nationality. There are some who would say once an Indian always and Indian and that a passport is just a piece of paper.
New Delhi and Ottawa have traded insults. Now they have started expelling each other’s diplomats. It seems very unlikely that they will go so far as to break off diplomatic relations.
In the 1980s the Khalistan Movement plagued India. Khalistan ‘land of the pure’ was the idea for a totally independent Sikh homeland based in Punjab. The Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) and other terrorist organisations attacked the Indian security forces. Notoriously Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated 40 years ago this month. Her Sikh bodyguards were incensed by the Indian Army storming the Golden Temple in Amritsar to defeat the KLF.
Indira Gandhi had been warned not to have Sikh bodyguards. But she said she trusted these men implicitly and would not discriminate. The President of India at the time – Zail Singh – was a Sikh.
In the wake of Mrs Gandhi’s death there were anti-Sikh pogroms. A few thousand Sikhs were murdered. Very few were brought to justice for this.
The Indian Army and the police eventually quelled the KLF insurrection. By the year 2000, Khalistan was a lost cause. Pakistan had armed, funded and trained the KLF just to cause problems for India in the 1980s. It was bitterly ironic that Sikh separatists should have enlisted the succour of Islamabad bearing in mind that so many Sikhs lost their lives during the Partition of India. Pakistan wanted vengeance against India for the loss of East Pakistan (i.e. Bangladesh).
KLF organisations still exist in Canada and the United Kingdom. Canada and the UK keep an eye on such activities and inform RAW what is happening.
The Canadians have not apprehended any suspects in the case. Ottawa’s allegation is unproven. Why would the Canadians make this accusation if they did not believe it were true? Since Indian independence, the two Commonwealth nations have enjoyed very cordial relations. Canada has a higher percentage of people of Indian origin than any other Western nation. 8% of Canadians are ethnically Indian. There have been Indians in Canada since before the First World War.
Toronto is Canada’s largest city and is 20% ethnically Indian. The Sikh community mostly resides in the province British Colombia. Indian Canadians have risen to high office including being Foreign Minister.
The Indian community in Canada mostly votes for the Liberal Party of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Monsieur Trudeau is in trouble. Even some of his Liberal Members of Parliament want to kick him out. He has been in office for 10 years.
If Trudeau falls, then his replacement might seek rapprochement with India. Reactions to Trudeau’s criticism of India vary in Canada from those who think he has been feeble to those who think there is no case to answer against India and he is stupidly impairing relations with an increasingly powerful nation.
Did RAW bump off Nijjar? There is a clear motive. What other motive would there be for anyone else to kill him? Admittedly the onus is on the accusers to do the proving.
By taking out Singh Nijjar, a source of funding and propaganda for the Khalistan Movement has been removed. People will be reluctant to put their head on a block by replacing him. Khalistan activists will know that the long arm of India can reach them even in Canada.
Killing Nijjar could backfire for India if indeed the Indians were behind it. He could be regarded as a martyr. It might galvanise the Khalistan cause.
If the Government of India decided to kill Nijjar it may have assumed that Canada would not react sharply especially if it were unable to prove anything. Moreover, India has seen Russia assassinated people in the United Kingdom and Germany. These Western countries did not react too strongly: they simply expelled some diplomats. That was a pathetic reaction given that relations between Western nations and Russia were already strained. By contrast relations between much of the West and India are amicable. Western lands recognise that India is growing in wealth and might. In times of heightened tension with Russia, China and Iran, it is increasingly important for Western nations to seek Indian assistance. Tellingly, Canada’s allies have not spoken up for Ottawa on the Singh Nijjar issue.