A royal mess. That’s the only way to describe the state of Canada-India relations after investigators and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made fresh allegations of Indian government agents being involved in “serious criminal activity” on Canadian soil.
These allegations have been strenuously denied by India, now and when they were first made by Trudeau in his country’s Parliament last year. Trudeau claimed in September 2023 that there was the potential of Indian government agents being involved in the killing of Khalistan advocate Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June that year.
Canada took the extreme step of expelling India’s High Commissioner, Sanjay Verma, a career diplomat, along with five of his colleagues, calling them “persons of interest” in alleged criminal activity being investigated by Canadian authorities. No specific details were provided.
Having one of its high commissioners expelled (a statement from New Delhi said Verma had been “withdrawn”) is a first for India. Even India and Pakistan have been more civilised when it comes to respecting the office of the high commissioner. There appears to be no precedent in India-Pakistan relations of a high commissioner being treated in this manner.
India retaliated by expelling six Canadian diplomats, including the Acting High Commissioner in New Delhi, making it clear that it was far from averse from playing the tit-for-tat diplomatic game.
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As Canada-India relations continue to sink, allegations and counter allegations—quite “normal” in such circumstances—are being traded by both countries. Any analyst would be compelled to note that India-Canada relations are at a dead end.
On October 14, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) issued a statement: “Investigations have revealed that Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada leveraged their official positions to engage in clandestine activities, such as collecting information for the Government of India, either directly or through their proxies; and other individuals who acted voluntarily or through coercion.”
The statement claimed: “Evidence also shows that a wide variety of entities in Canada and abroad have been used by agents of the Government of India to collect information. Some of these individuals and businesses were coerced and threatened into working for the Government of India. The information collected for the Government of India is then used to target members of the South Asian community.”
For its part, India said: “We have received a diplomatic communication from Canada yesterday [October 13] suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are ‘persons of interest’ in a matter related to an investigation in that country. The Government of India strongly rejects these preposterous imputations and ascribes them to the political agenda of the Trudeau Government that is centred around vote bank politics.”
The External Affairs Ministry stated: “Since Prime Minister Trudeau made certain allegations in September 2023, the Canadian Government has not shared a shred of evidence with the Government of India, despite many requests from our side. This latest step follows interactions that have again witnessed assertions without any facts. This leaves little doubt that on the pretext of an investigation, there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains.”
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Revealing that there is more to follow, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said on October 18 that the 15 Indian diplomats still in the country were “on notice”, meaning more expulsions are quite likely.
On October 17, the spokesman of the External Affairs Ministry claimed that as many as 36 extradition requests were pending with Canada. “Some of the notable ones who have been charged with terror and related crimes… are Gurjeet Singh, Gurjinder Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Lakhbir Singh Landa and Arshdeep Singh Gill. They are wanted in terror charges… We have shared security related information with the Canadian government regarding gang members, including those of Lawrence Bishnoi gang, and requested them to arrest them and/or to take due action as per law,” the spokesman said at a briefing.
For long, India has maintained that the Canadian government is soft on Khalistani extremism and has allowed separatists to free run. It is, of course, not clear what these separatists have done apart from promoting the Khalistani cause. In any case, such details are not in the public domain.
There is considerable fog over the kind of evidence the Canadians have about the Indian government’s involvement in alleged criminal acts. What has been shared with India is not clear though former Canadian High Commissioner to India Cameron MacKay has suggested that the killing of Nijjar and the murder plot against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, another Khalistan activist, an American citizen, were part of a single plot emanating from Delhi.
Unlike the Canadians, the US has moved to indict Vikash Yadav, who was then serving in India’s external spy agency, R&AW, for the plot to kill Pannun. Yadav, a former CRPF officer, is said to have exchanged many messages with Nikhil Gupta, a co-conspirator now in US custody, for ordering the hit on Pannun.
Police personnel walk past the Canadian High Commission entrance in New Delhi on October 16, 2024. | Photo Credit: MONEY SHARMA/AFP
‘Orchestrating from Delhi’
“The [US] Justice Department today announced the filing of murder-for-hire and money laundering charges against Indian government employee, Vikash Yadav, 39, also known as Vikas, and Amanat, in connection with his role in directing a foiled plot to assassinate a U.S. citizen in New York City. Yadav is charged in a second superseding indictment unsealed today in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Yadav’s alleged co-conspirator, Nikhil Gupta, 53, was previously charged and extradited to the United States on the charges contained in the first superseding indictment. Yadav remains at large,” a press statement said on October 17.
Yadav has been accused of orchestrating the murder plot from Delhi through Gupta, who in turn contacted an individual to carry out the killing. This individual turned out to be an official in the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), with whom Gupta was in regular contact, sharing messages and details allegedly sent by Yadav relating to the foiled murder plot.
On June 18, 2023, the latest US indictment said, Nijjar, described as an associate of Pannun, was murdered outside a gurdwarain British Columbia, Canada. Hours after Nijjar was killed, a video clip showing Nijjar’s body was sent by Yadav to Gupta. Again, Gupta messaged the undercover DEA officer that he could go ahead with attacking Pannun in New York.
It is widely believed that the Americans tipped off the Canadians about those said to be behind Nijjar’s murder. Also, the coordinated statements emanating from the “Five Eyes”, an intelligence sharing arrangement between the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, would suggest that this network was very much in the loop.
People-to-people ties
While India has scrambled to deal with US concerns about the Pannun matter, Delhi has been in full denial when it comes to Canada. The status of the two countries perhaps dictates the response even though India has substantial business and people-to-people ties with Canada.
Indian security officials recently in the US are said to have informed the US that Yadav was no longer working for the government. In turn, the Americans have made the right noises about India’s cooperation in the Pannun matter. Where this story heads in a New York court of law will be closely watched.
Indian intelligence being accused of killing / plotting to kill Canadian / American nationals on foreign soil—of friendly countries—is most embarrassing. The lack of accountability of Indian intelligence agencies to the Indian public is something that merits a wider debate. Such charges must lead to some Parliamentary oversight of intelligence agencies that are simply loyal to top government officials of the day.
With Canada, the story line with India is likely to remain the same for a long, long time to come. Allegations and counter-allegations will continue to traverse the distance between Delhi and Ottawa. In the gathering fog, opinion is likely to trump evidence.
Amit Baruah is an independent, Delhi-based journalist, who was previously Foreign Editor of the Hindustan Times and correspondent for The Hindu in Colombo, Islamabad and Singapore. He is the author of Dateline Islamabad.
