India To Withdraw High Commissioner From Canada In Massive Escalation Of Row

The government has decided to withdraw its High Commissioner in Canada after Ottawa linked him and some other Indian diplomats to the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. “We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security,” the government conveyed to the Canadian Charge d’Affaires who was summoned by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) this evening.

“It was underlined that in an atmosphere of extremism and violence, the Trudeau Government’s actions endangered their safety. We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials,” the foreign ministry said.

The ties between the two countries plunged further after Canada said it was investigating the Indian High Commissioner as a “person of interest” in the killing of Nijjar.

The Foreign Ministry received a “diplomatic communication from Canada yesterday suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are ‘persons of interest’ in a matter related to an investigation in that country”.

It said that the aspersions cast on High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma by Canada were “ludicrous”.  

“High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma is India’s senior-most serving diplomat with a distinguished career spanning 36 years. He has been an Ambassador in Japan and Sudan, while also serving in Italy, Turkiye, Vietnam and China. The aspersions cast on him by the Government of Canada are ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt,” the foreign ministry said.

It hit out at the “preposterous” allegations, terming them a “strategy of smearing India for political gains”.

The government also informed the senior diplomat of Canada this evening that the “baseless targeting of the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely unacceptable”.

It was also conveyed that India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau Government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India, it said.

The government statement this morning slammed Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau’s “hostility to India”, adding, in 2018, his visit to India, “which was aimed at currying favour with a vote bank, rebounded to his discomfort”.

“His Cabinet has included individuals who have openly associated with an extremist and separatist agenda regarding India,” it said.

Last year, India curbed visas for Canadians and forced Ottawa to withdraw diplomats.

The latest dip in the ties comes just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Laos. While Trudeau described the meeting as a “brief exchange”, sources in New Delhi said there was no substantive discussion between the two leaders.

PM Modi and Trudeau’s first meeting after Canada raised allegations regarding Nijjar’s death was on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Italy in June this year.

India has been maintaining that the main issue between the two countries is that of Canada – home to around 7,70,000 Sikhs – giving space to pro-Khalistan elements “operating from their soil with impunity”, sources in New Delhi said.

Trudeau, meanwhile, has insisted that his stand on the matter remains the same.