Justin Trudeau will have guessed which topic would dominate his press conference at the UN General Assembly in New York. On Monday, Canada’s Prime Minister accused India of responsible for the death of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar near Vancouver. Three days later, Trudeau has not taken back any of these accusations, which he said he “does not make lightly”: “There are credible reasons to believe that Indian government agents were involved in the killing of a Canadian on Canadian soil.”
In a constitutional state, it is of utmost importance to investigate these allegations “rigorously and independently,” says Trudeau, emphasizing that he is taking the matter “extremely seriously.” India’s government should also do this and cooperate. When asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi had denied or admitted the allegations when the two met at the G-20 summit in Delhi, Trudeau only replied: “We had an open and direct conversation in which I expressed my concerns without any doubt made it clear.”
Canada now receives support from the USA
The Financial Times (FT), US President Joe Biden also addressed Modi directly about the Najjir case at the G-20 summit. Other heads of state and government from the “Five Eyes” intelligence network, which also includes Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, did the same. Canada had shared its findings with the Five Eyes partners and this report should help the domestically troubled Trudeau counter the impression that he is isolated in the diplomatic dispute.
Biden’s security advisor Jake Sullivan also emphasizes the close solidarity between the USA and Canada. The issues have not driven a wedge between the two neighbors, he says in Washington. It is also wrong that the Biden administration is holding back from criticism because it has entered into a strategic partnership with India to curb China’s claims to global power, Sullivan asserts. The USA is in contact with the Indian government about the allegations from Ottawa.
For Biden, it’s a balancing act. It was only in May that he hosted a state reception for Modi at the White House – and the most recent agreement with Vietnam has also led to criticism in the USA as to whether Biden is prepared to sacrifice human rights for strategic goals. The fact that a spokeswoman now has to assure that it remains “absolutely unacceptable” to “target dissidents living abroad” and that the USA would defend itself against such actionssays a lot.
India no longer issues visas to Canadians
And Narendra Modi? India’s prime minister is silent. The Foreign Ministry is responsible for the reaction, and it is sharp: On Thursday, in view of the “absurd” allegations, the issuance of visas for Canadians was suspended. This is likely to be a problem especially for the approximately 1.5 million Indian Canadians with close ties to their old homeland. There was previously a travel warning: Indians should only travel to Canada with “extreme caution”. As if Canada had suddenly become a rogue state. In New York, Trudeau left it open whether Canada was planning countermeasures.
India’s foreign ministry has sent Ottawa a list of names of about 20 pro-Khalistani “terrorists” who are in Canada, but has received no response. Canada is “a safe haven for terrorists, extremists and organized crime,” complains the ministry – and uses a term that is normally reserved for the enemy sister state of Pakistan.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey on June 18 and whose death triggered the diplomatic crisis, was born in Punjab in 1977. 20 years later he moved to Canada, where he worked as a plumber and received citizenship. According to the Indian anti-terrorism agency NIA, he was initially linked to the exiled Sikh separatist group Babbar Khalsa International. It wants to establish a homeland for the Sikh minority in India’s northern state of Punjab and is classified as a “terrorist organization” by Delhi. Delhi claims the group is funded by Pakistan – Islamabad denies this.
Nijjar was the head of the “Khalistan Tiger Force” and is said to have tried to create “disharmony between the various communities” in the country. However, India’s government does not need a separatist in distant Canada for this. The ruling “Bharatiya Janata” party led by Prime Minister Modi has consistently been collecting votes since 2014 through a Hindu nationalist course that places the majority of Hindus as the dominant community above all other religious groups. This also affects the Sikhs, who make up less than two percent of the population in India – but around 60 percent in the rich agricultural state of Punjab.
At the time of his assassination, Nijjar was organizing a referendum for an independent Sikh nation in Punjab. However, such a move would have had little impact on conditions in India, where the Khalistan movement has never recovered after it was crushed in the 1980s. If anything, she was kept alive by Modi’s government as an enemy so that she could present herself as a savior.
The Indian Foreign Ministry also complains that it is not receiving “any specific information” from Ottawa. Trudeau has so far remained silent on the demand that the evidence be made public. The Canadian broadcaster CDC reports, citing government circles, that Indian officials would not deny the substance of the allegation. There is material available to prove the involvement of Indian officials and diplomats stationed in Canada. Some evidence is said to come from another Five Eyes intelligence service. So there is nothing to indicate an imminent relaxation.