8 November 2024

India’s Canada Policy Is a Strategic Mistake

Dr. Muqtedar Khan and Shivani Pandey

India is embroiled in a steadily escalating diplomatic spat with Canada. Over a year ago, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Indian officials of being involved in the assassination of a Sikh community leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in June 2023 and demanded that the Indian government cooperate with Canada in its investigations of the Nijjar murder and other similar attempts.

India rejected the allegations as absurd and accused Canada of harboring Khalistani separatists wanted for terrorism in India. The first iteration of the spat led to the expulsion of diplomats and a reduction in the size of their respective diplomatic presence.

Escalating Crisis

The crisis has continued with periodic flare-ups and has now metastasized into a diplomatic disaster with no easy pathways to early resolution and normalization. For over a year Canada has been demanding that the Indian government cooperate with it in its investigation. The Modi government has responded by insisting that Canada had provided no evidence to substantiate its claims and so there was nothing that the Indian government could do to help.

In the past few weeks the Canadian investigative agencies claimed that they have presented the Indian government with the evidence they have and still India rejected it outright. The Canadians first announced that Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Verma (the highest Indian diplomat in Canada) was a person of interest along with several other diplomats who have since returned to India. According to media reports, Canadian officials met with India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in Singapore and shared with him the evidence they had gathered.

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