By Ambassador Srikumar Menon
a 6 mins read.
Separatist Groups
A lot has transpired during the past eleven months. The Indian establishment has its work cut out, as it tries to recover lost ground while attempting to restore normalcy in its longstanding bilateral relationship with Canada. The year-long stand-off started in June 2023, when Canada accused India of possible complicity in the killing of the Sikh separatist leader, with India outrightly rejecting the accusation as “absurd and motivated”. This, in turn, led to the continuing unfortunate diplomatic stand-off, marked initially by a series of tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats from both sides.
India has over the years, faulted Canada for shielding members of militant separatist groups operating from Canadian territory. India has often conveyed its frustration to Canada for the latter not doing enough to rein in such Canada-based operatives and for not acting upon “specific evidence about their criminal activities”. All along, India’s concern has been the lack of intent and action shown by the Canadian government in addressing and reining in the overt and covert threat posed by Sikh extremists.
India has time and again flagged the anti-India activities being propagated and launched from the soil of Canada, which directly impact the security and sovereignty of India. All along, Canada has chosen to ignore these red flags, while taking the easy way out by abdicating its bounden responsibility as a defender of the rule of law. The matter came to a head, when the Canadian Prime Minister chose to go public, by making unsubstantiated claims in the Canadian Parliament, about the Indian government’s involvement in the Nijjar episode, without providing any concrete evidence. In fact, to date, Canada has not provided any evidence publicly to authenticate its claims.
Politically Motivated
As seen from the Indian perspective, it was a wholly uncalled-for, knee-jerk reaction from the Canadian PM. An obvious part of a politically motivated appeasement policy, orchestrated and playing to the gallery, ostensibly to gain the support of a particular vote-bank constituency in Canada. While doing so, the Canadian leader was evidently seeking to garner political support and shore up his own waning personal popularity, while also attempting to halt the ruling party’s declining electoral prospects.
The Indian government set a deadline for Canada to take steps to cut down the strength of its diplomatic staff in India, to match the diplomatic staff strength of the Indian Mission in Canada.
The immediate upshot of this was that India suspended visa services in Canada citing “security threats” faced by its High Commission and consulates. The Indian government set a deadline for Canada to take steps to cut down the strength of its diplomatic staff in India, to match the diplomatic staff strength of the Indian Mission in Canada. On its part, Canada withdrew 41 of its diplomats posted in India, while also suspending visa and consular services temporarily in some Indian cities. From the Indian perspective, the unfortunate fallout from this stand-off was the suspension of visas for Indian nationals seeking to travel to Canada and the dilution in security and diplomatic immunity for Indian diplomats based in Canada. The most affected continue to be the large group of Indian students studying in various cities in Canada and the numerous prospective students awaiting their turn to take up admissions in Canadian Universities. All of them continue to face an uncertain and bleak academic future, unless there is a resolution of this impasse, sooner than later.
Stalemate Continues
The adverse impact on Canada’s image as a “study destination” offering high-quality higher education and research opportunities is already visible with large numbers of Indian students already looking elsewhere, considering alternative destinations for pursuing their study and residency. In the midst of all these negativities creeping into the bilateral relations between India and Canada, the US media reported in April 2024, about the possible involvement of an Indian intelligence operative in an alleged conspiracy to assassinate another pro-separatist Sikh leader.
As we now approach the completion of a year since the unfortunate issue erupted, the fact remains that the stalemate continues as bilateral ties remain strained and frosty – with Canada, time and again, choosing to escalate the issue, while doing little to defuse the tension. It certainly did not help matters, when last month in April, the Canadian PM chose to attend a pro-separatist rally in Toronto, prompting a vigorous and scathing protest from the Indian Government. The Canadian leader’s presence at the event was even more galling for Indian sensibilities, considering that rabid anti-India and pro-separatist slogans were raised without any restraining action from the local authorities.
Later, the Indian government had to castigate Canadian authorities for permitting a controversial rally organized by radical separatist elements in Malton Ontario, on 5 May, where a staged tableau-float depicted the Indian Prime Minister in an offensive and bad light. The participants at the rally also displayed posters and banners inciting violence against Indian diplomats. In a strongly worded statement on the issue, the Indian External Affairs Ministry called on Canadian authorities “not to allow intimidation by radical elements in the name of freedom of expression.
The Canadian leader’s presence at the event was even more galling for Indian sensibilities, considering that rabid anti-India and pro-separatist slogans were raised without any restraining action from the local authorities.
As these differences between India and Canada have come to a head, what is significant is that the US administration has, all along, taken a measured, pragmatic approach to the issue, by maintaining a nuanced balance in its public statements and encouraging the two countries to cooperate and engage with each other in dialogue to sort out their bilateral relations. Though it stated that it viewed it as a serious matter, the US was quick to express satisfaction with the steps taken by the Indian government to put a process in place to investigate the issue. The US stand has been that its relationship with India is an important, strategic, and consequential partnership. And the UK, on its part, without taking sides, has called for de-escalation of the matter.
Practical Solutions
In these circumstances, while there has been a clear lack of direct or overt international support for its stand during the early part of this stand-off, Canada was forced to tone down its rhetoric and take a less belligerent approach. Canada, for a brief while, showed that it was inclined to feel the need to re-engage with India and find an amicable way out of the unfortunate predicament that the two sides found themselves in. However, subsequent events and stage posturing by the Canadian leadership have only contributed to more rigidity in the relationship.
It goes without saying that the two countries have had a warm relationship based on shared common traditions of democracy, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious pluralism, and strong people-to-people connections. Thus, there is a need for both sides to re-engage and work constructively together to repair the damage and find practical solutions for the contentious issues through the time-tested mode of dialogue.
Of course, with the political and security stakes being so high, talking about such options is easier said than done. Both sides will have to climb down from their positions of taking the high moral ground. Both sides do realize that it is in their interest to de-escalate and talk with each other rather than have a slanging match with each other. The sorry episode should not be a distraction from focusing on priorities and other matters of greater importance from the bilateral perspective.
For this stalemate to end, it is important that both sides work together to achieve the goal of restoring bilateral relations to the calm, rational levels that existed before this unfortunate episode. While recognizing the need to address the contentious issues, it would do a world of good for both sides to leverage and focus on the strategic and prosperous trading relationship that has hitherto existed.
That can be achieved by de-escalating the big talk, getting away from making populist public statements, and getting down to real dialogue through a structured diplomatic channel of engagement between specially nominated representatives. It is hoped that, for the sake of good Indo-Canadian relations, both sides will soon be able to invoke the required level of confidence and trust in each other to re-engage in constructive dialogue.
(Ambassador Srikumar Menon, IFS (Retd.), Former Ambassador of India to South Sudan, Angola, and Sao Tome & Principe. The views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The News Analytics Journal)
