India tells Canada to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats from the country
TORONTO — India has told Canada to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country, an official familiar with the matter said Tuesday, ramping up a confrontation between the two countries over Ottawa’s accusations that New Delhi may have been involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in suburban Vancouver.
The official, who confirmed an earlier report from the Financial Times, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
India’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment, but ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi previously called for cutbacks of Canadian diplomats in India, saying they outnumbered India’s staffing in Canada.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood up in Parliament last month and said there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the slaying of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Sikh leader who was killed by masked gunmen in June in Surrey, outside Vancouver. For years, India has accused Nijjar of having links to terrorism, an allegation the Indian-born Canadian denied.
Arranging the killing of a Canadian citizen in Canada, home to nearly 2 million people of Indian descent, would be unprecedented.
On Tuesday, Trudeau didn’t confirm the number of diplomats who have been told to leave but suggested that Canada would not retaliate.
After its explosive allegation of possible Indian involvement in the killing of one of its citizens, Canada receives only muted support from allies.
“Obviously, we are going through an extremely challenging time with India right now, but that’s why it is so important for us to have diplomats on the ground working with the Indian government and there to support Canadians and Canadian families,” Trudeau said. “We’re taking this extremely seriously, but we’re going to continue to engage responsibly and constructively with the Indian government.”
Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said she’s in contact with the Indian government.
“We will continue to engage privately because we think that diplomatic conversations are best when they remain private,” Joly said.
India has accused Canada for years of giving free rein to Sikh separatists, including Nijjar.
India has also canceled visas for Canadians. Canada has not retaliated for that. India also previously expelled a senior Canadian diplomat after Canada expelled a senior Indian diplomat.
Trudeau previously appeared to try to calm the diplomatic clash, telling reporters that Canada is “not looking to provoke or escalate.”
India has advised its citizens to be careful when traveling to Canada as a rift between the two nations widens further.
The allegation of India’s involvement in the killing is based in part on the surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada, including intelligence provided by a major ally, a separate Canadian official previously told the Associated Press.
The official said that the communications involved government officials in India and Indian diplomats in Canada and that some of the intelligence was providedby a member of the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance, which consists of the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, in addition to Canada. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The latest expulsions by India escalates tensions. Trudeau had frosty encounters with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during last month’s Group of 20 meeting in New Delhi, and days later, Canada canceled a trade mission to India planned for the fall.
“This is a clear show of force on the part of the Modi government, who’s not afraid to escalate this diplomatic crisis,” said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal. “It’s a dramatic move that seriously weakens the capacity of Canada’s diplomatic services in India.”
As host of this year’s summit of the Group of 20 leading economies, India has pledged to put the concerns of developing countries front and center.
Béland said it would hurt many Indian citizens, including the many foreign students and temporary foreign workers in need of a Canadian visa.
“The U.S. needs to do more to solve this diplomatic crisis,” he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met last week with India’s foreign minister amid the simmering row between New Delhi and Ottawa. A U.S. official said the topic was raised.
U.S. officials have acknowledged that the fallout from the allegations, which they take seriously, could have a profound impact on relations with India, but they have been careful not to cast blame in the killing of Nijjar.
Breaking News
Get breaking news, investigations, analysis and more signature journalism from the Los Angeles Times in your inbox.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
“We are and continue to be deeply concerned by the allegations,” U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said to reporters when asked about the case and India expelling 41 Canadian diplomats.
“It is critical that Canada’s investigation proceed and that the perpetrators be brought to justice. We have publicly and privately urged India to cooperate. We take these allegations very seriously.”
Maitreyi Bhatt, a 27-year-old Indian citizen in Toronto whose partner is Canadian and needs a visa, canceled her wedding scheduled in India for late October, when he was to meet her family for the first time. The lost deposits and nonrefundable flights have been a blow, Bhatt said, but are “nothing compared to the mental and emotional turmoil.”
“The way the situation is accelerating, I don’t see them coming to a solution to this anytime soon,” she said. “It just feels super weird. I never thought I would be a part of this, but sadly I am.”
Nijjar, a plumber, was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to carve out an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan. A bloody decade-long Sikh insurgency shook north India in the 1970s and 1980s before it was crushed in a government crackdown in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.
The Khalistan movement has lost much of its political power but still has supporters in the Indian state of Punjab, as well as in the sizable overseas Sikh diaspora. Although the active insurgency ended years ago, the Indian government has warned repeatedly that Sikh separatists were trying to make a comeback.
Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said India’s actions are “consistent with international reports of declining press freedoms” in the country.
“Like the Chinese government, the Modi government thinks it is in a stronger position than in the past to flex its muscles on the international stage,” Wiseman said.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
