DC Edit | ‘Khalistan’ issue in Canada ties: India caught in a bind
India-Canada ties have hit a nadir with the naming of a high functionary of the government in home minister Amit Shah as responsible for ordering action against Sikh activists residing in Canada. An outraged India dubbed the leaked accusation as “absurd” and “baseless” and the exchanges on the issue are bound to see tensions escalate and the relationship deteriorate further.
India may have been stung by a series of revelations by Canada since the assassination of Sikh activist Gurdeep Singh Nijjar last year. But, as it did in the case of the US charge of a foiled plot to kill the Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Canadian and American citizen, in setting up a probe and talking to the American administration, India has only heaped vitriol on the government of beleaguered Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
A diplomatic standoff has begun after the Canadians claimed to have revealed officially in a meeting in Singapore the role of Amit Shah based on their intelligence inputs that had led to the leaking of the home minister’s name through an American newspaper. They did so avowedly because India had jumped the gun with a denial to the media.
The devil is not so much in the details as in the basic relationship having been progressively spoiled by Canada’s encouragement of Sikh separatists in the name of freedom of speech and India denigrating such support to those calling for the breaking of the territorial integrity of another nation. Any charges of gathering intelligence on such separatist activities through the embassy may not stand scrutiny as such activities are not necessarily a breach of the diplomatic code.
It would, however, have been better had India been more forthcoming with a point-by-point denial of some of the charges like posing of cyber-threats by Indian agencies and players. However, there is no way anyone can prove that the home minister was involved in ordering hits on anti-India elements resident in Canada and hence the absurdity of the claim.
The lines between the foreign office, its intelligence gathering wings like RAW and the NSA not reporting directly to the home ministry had blurred long ago with the incumbent heading that ministry being a highly placed political figure and influencer of national policies. There may have been plausible deniability had the lines not been crossed.
The old cosy ties between India and a nation close to the US not only in geography were headed for the rocks once the Canadian PM became dependent on a party of immigrant Sikhs to sustain his majority in Parliament. There appears to be no way out of this until a change of government comes about in Ottawa. That is a big dampener as an aspirational India is now a member of Quad and closer to the US than at any time in history.
The cause and effect are seen easily enough in the chain of events relating to separatist sentiments. India knows the importance of North American ties and those with the other nations in the “Five Eyes” group and yet it is a Catch-22 situation as it cannot attempt a major reset so long as Sikh separatism, mollycoddled in Canada, does not detach itself from local Canadian politics.