India calls expulsions of diplomats from Canada ‘preposterous imputations’ driven by Trudeau’s agenda

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New Delhi has vehemently rejected Ottawa’s claims that Indian diplomats were linked to homicides, extortion and other violent criminal activity in Canada, describing them as “preposterous imputations” driven by the political agenda of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In a flurry of statements late Monday, India accused Mr. Trudeau of “smearing India for political gains” and ordered six Canadian diplomats, including acting High Commissioner Stewart Wheeler, to leave the country. The tit-for-tat response followed Canada’s own expulsion of Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and five of his colleagues, who Ottawa said Monday had been linked to the June, 2023, killing of Surrey, B.C.-based Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs dismissed the accusations against its diplomats – which follow a year-long investigation by the RCMP in which at least 30 people have been charged – as “assertions without facts.”

“The Canadian Government has not shared a shred of evidence with the Government of India, despite many requests from our side,” it said in a statement.

A senior Canadian official previously told The Globe and Mail that texts and messages from Indian officials about intelligence gathering and attacks on Sikhs in Canada were shared with senior Indian officials. The Globe is not identifying the source because they were not authorized to discuss the matter on national-security grounds.

Mr. Trudeau said he also raised the issue with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a brief aside last week at a summit in Laos.

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Even before the latest revelations, however, New Delhi’s suspicion of Mr. Trudeau was such that he was unlikely to get a receptive audience, said Harsh Pant, vice-president of the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi think tank.

“I don’t think there’s any confidence in Delhi that with him at the helm there will be an honest attempt to resolve these issues,” Prof. Pant told The Globe. “Mr. Trudeau’s past has come back to haunt India and Canada’s present.”

Mr. Trudeau has struggled to repair ties with New Delhi since a disastrous trip to India in 2018, when a Sikh extremist was invited to join an official function attended by the Canadian Prime Minister. Comments since then about having more Sikhs in his cabinet than Mr. Modi, or criticizing Delhi over Sikh-led farmer protests in 2020, have only deepened Indian suspicions of Mr. Trudeau and driven a widespread perception that he is more focused on winning Sikh votes back home than building ties with Delhi.

This has calcified into outright hostility in many quarters, as India has become increasingly vocal – for political rather than security reasons, many analysts say – about the alleged danger posed by Sikh separatists in Punjab and abroad. Canada is home to the largest Sikh population outside India and a hub for the movement to establish an independent homeland known as Khalistan.

Indian diplomatic missions in the West have been targeted by Khalistani protesters, particularly since the murder of Mr. Nijjar, and Delhi was incensed last year when a parade in Brampton, Ont., featured a float depicting the 1984 assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was killed by her Sikh bodyguards.

Matters came to a head last September when Mr. Trudeau publicly accused India of involvement in Mr. Nijjar’s killing, an assertion dismissed by Delhi at the time but since supported by RCMP investigations and findings in a separate, U.S. case involving the attempted assassination of a Sikh leader in New York.

Dal Khalsa, a pro-Khalistan organization based in Punjab, said it felt “vindicated” by Canada’s latest revelations about India’s alleged involvement in activity targeting Sikh activists.

Kanwar Pal Singh, the group’s political affairs secretary, said in an e-mail that for Sikhs in Punjab, “there has never been an iota of doubt” that the government of India and Indian intelligence were involved in Mr. Nijjar’s killing.

“The time has come when the international community, including Five Eyes partners and the European Union, must hold India accountable for transnational repression,” he added, noting his organization’s appreciation for Mr. Trudeau’s “relentless efforts.”

Praise from Khalistani quarters is unlikely to help Mr. Trudeau’s reputation with mainstream Indian society, however. In its statement Monday, the Ministry of External Affairs said Mr. Trudeau’s “hostility to India has long been in evidence.”

“His naked interference in Indian internal politics in December 2020 showed how far he was willing to go in this regard,” it said. “Under criticism for turning a blind eye to foreign interference in Canadian politics, his Government has deliberately brought in India in an attempt to mitigate the damage. This latest development targeting Indian diplomats is now the next step in that direction.”

Coverage of the expulsions in Indian media also focused on Mr. Trudeau. The Times of India described Canada’s move as a “pre-poll ploy” in one of several articles linking the spat to the Liberals’ waning popularity and calls for Mr. Trudeau’s resignation.

Speaking to the Hindustan Times, K.P. Fabian, who worked as an Indian diplomat in Canada, said that “as long as Justin Trudeau remains Prime Minister in Canada, we do not see things getting better.”

Prof. Pant agreed, noting how personalized the issue has become. “It might not be very accurate, but the perception is that he’s not sincere,” he said of Mr. Trudeau. “There has been an absolute breakdown of confidence between the two sides, so that when charges are levelled, the prism becomes that past disengagement.”

For Canadians engaged with India, there may be a silver lining in how focused Delhi’s anger has been at Mr. Trudeau. While the spat over Mr. Nijjar’s killing resulted in negotiations for a free-trade agreement being put on hold, economic engagement has remained relatively steady.

Nadira Hamid, the CEO of the Delhi-based Indo-Canadian Business Chamber, said the freeze in relations last year “was a very big setback” diplomatically but did not spill over much beyond this.

“Many players in the India-Canada corridor feel this is a purely political issue,” she said. “We’re fairly confident that the momentum will continue. This year has proven that in spite of the bad relationship, it has not negatively impacted either investment or business.”

With reports from Marieke Walsh and Robert Fife in Ottawa.