India has officially protested against the Canadian government’s allegation linking President Modi’s right-hand man to alleged plots against Sikh separatists.
Relations between the two countries have been tense for more than a year after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were credible allegations the Indian government had links to the assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. India has vehemently rejected the accusation.
Last month, the Washington Post reported that Canadian officials suspected Amit Shah, India’s powerful home minister and Narendra Modi’s right-hand man, had ordered the targeting of Sikh activists inside Canada.
Canada’s deputy foreign affairs minister David Morrison confirmed to a parliamentary panel on Tuesday that he had told the newspaper Mr Shah was behind the plots.
India has now told Canada it “protests in the strongest terms to the absurd and baseless references made to the Union Home Minister of India,” according to the foreign ministry’s spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Saturday.
Mr Jaiswal also accused Canada of “flagrant” violations of diplomatic conventions, after he said the Canadian government told consular staff they were “under audio and video surveillance”.
Killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar
In September last year, Mr Trudeau accused the Indian government of being linked to the assassination of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who died in June 2023.
He was shot dead in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, where he was president.
“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” Mr Trudeau told Canada’s House of Commons at the time.
India rejected the accusation as “absurd” and told Canada to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country.
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Trudeau addresses diplomatic row with India
Mr Nijjar, 45, was a prominent supporter of a separatist movement that wants to establish an independent homeland for Sikhs in India, where they are a minority.
He had previously been branded a “terrorist” by the Indian government, according to local reports, and was part of the banned Khalistan movement.
Read more: What is the Khalistan movement
Mourners carry the coffin of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia. Pic:The Canadian Press/AP
In October, Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma, after police uncovered evidence of ongoing violent criminal activity linked to India’s government.
At the same time, India ordered the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats, in a tit-for-tat exchange.
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Separately, US officials alleged Indian agents were involved in an attempted assassination plot against Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York last year.
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The US Justice department indicted an Indian national working at the behest of an unnamed Indian government official.
However, the Indian government told US officials in October the unnamed official no longer worked for the government and a US spokesperson said Washington was satisfied with India’s cooperation.
