TOUCHING A NEW NADIR

WITH INDIA-CANADA TIES PLUMMETING OVER THE TRUDEAU GOVERNMENT'S LATEST CHARGES, ECONOMIC RELATIONS MIGHT BECOME A VICTIM OF THE SPAT

- Pradip R. Sagar

Diplomatic ties between India and Canada, already at a low ebb since last year, received another blow with a series of overlapping developments on October 14. At the end of that bruising day, diplomats in both countries started packing their bags to leave. The Indian ministry of external affairs, in an angry statement, announced that it was withdrawing its high commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and some other diplomats from Ottawa-western reports said that they were expelled-as it had "no faith" in Canada's commitment to ensuring their security.

The statement was prompted by communication from Canada on October 13 that Verma and some other diplomats were 'persons of interest-or involved in a criminal investigation into the killing of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, in British Columbia in June 2023. Rejecting what it called "preposterous imputations", India said the charges against Verma were "ludicrous" and ascribed the matter to the "political agenda of the Trudeau government...centred around vote bank politics". The statement noted that India reserved the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau government's "support for extremism and separatism against India". The implication being that Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau is pandering to the pro-Khalistan sentiments of a section of the Sikh population in Canada. India then announced the expulsion of Canadian high commissioner Stewart Ross Wheeler and five other diplomats. The last time that diplomats were expelled in such numbers was in 2019, between India and Pakistan, after New Delhi revoked the special status of Jammu & Kashmir.

The Fallout