India Expels Canadian Diplomat in Retaliatory Move Amid Escalating Tensions Over Assassinated Sikh Activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar

This political pressure  surfaced when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that Canada is  probing” believable allegations” linking India to the June payoff of prominent Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar by Canadian citizens.

Trudeau informed Parliament on Monday that” in recent weeks, Canadian security agencies have been diligently pursuing allegations of possible connections between agents of the Government of India and the tragic killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar has spurred a commitment to exhaust every possible effort in bringing those responsible for this heinous act to justice.

The Diplomatic Tensions Between Canada and India

Canada has expelled an Indian diplomat,  linked as a  elderly delegation functionary by Foreign Minister Melanie Joly. She told  journalists in Ottawa,” moment, we’re expelling a  elderly Indian diplomat, but we will go as far as we need to.” She further mentioned that Trudeau had raised this issue with both U.S.  Leader Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

In response, India’s Ministry of External Affairs expressed its rejection of these allegations and declared that it had asked a Canadian  elderly delegation functionary to leave the country within the coming five days. This decision reflects  enterprises within the Indian government about the  hindrance of Canadian diplomats in internal matters and their involvement in anti-India conditioning.  Hardeep Singh Nijjar was a prominent Sikh leader in western Canada.

Sikh Leader’s Murder Sparks Canada-India Tensions

According to original police, he was shot dead in June by two masked markswomen armed with rifles outside a Sikh  tabernacle in British Columbia. His death has deeply impacted the Sikh community in Canada, which is the largest  nonage community with over 770,000 members.

Following Trudeau’s  exposures, two prominent Sikh groups in Canada, the British Columbia Gurdwara Council( BCGC) and the Ontario Gurdwara Committee( OGC),  prompted the Canadian government to”  incontinently suspend all intelligence, investigative, and aid cooperation with India.”

They emphasized that Canada’s comprehensive response should reflect the  graveness of India’s involvement in the murder and its  repression of Sikh rights.  According to a statement from the World Sikh Organization, Nijjar was an oral advocate for the separate  motherland of Khalistan for Sikhs and  frequently led peaceful  demurrers against  mortal rights violations and support for Khalistan in India.

Khalistan Terrorism Controversy

Khalistan is considered an illegal association in India, and the Indian government has classified several groups associated with it under the Unlawful Conditioning( Prevention) Act( UAPA) as” terrorist associations.”  Najjar’s name was also included in the Ministry of Home Affairs’ UAPA list of terrorists.

In 2020, the Indian National Investigation Agency  indicted him of  trying to” radicalize the worldwide Sikh community into  becoming fundamentalist,” adding that he was” working to support the Khalistani cause, campaigning for votes in favor of Khalistan, and  laboriously  sharing in anti-India conditioning worldwide.”

India responded on Tuesday, rejecting Trudeau’s allegations as”  unwarranted and sensational.”

Global Concerns Amid Allegations Against India

In a statement, Our nation declared itself, a widely-supported society with a strong foundation of legal governance. Similar  unwarranted allegations against India’s law- abiding and popular  morality are of deep concern.

The  prophet for the National Security Council, Adrian Watson, expressed” deep concern” at the White House regarding these allegations.” We remain  nearly engaged with our Canadian  mates,” he said in a statement.” It’s vital that Canada’s  disquisition proceeds, and those responsible for the murder are held accountable in the eyes of the law.” Canadian authorities have not apprehended anyone linked to Nijjar’s homicide. Still, in a recent update, police  claimed that they’re canvassing  three implicit suspects and have released details of a vehicle to seek public  backing.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong also expressed” deep concern” about these allegations. In a  common statement with Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, they said,” We understand these reports are particularly concerning to some Australian communities. Indian Australians are valued and important  mates in our vibrant and different multilateral societies, where all Australians can express their views safely and peacefully.” 

Bitter Relations

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, allegations from Canada against the Indian government could further strain relations between both countries. The ongoing trade agreement between them has been halted. India’s Minister of Commerce and Trade expressed, according to original reports, that there are some issues that are causing serious concern.

Modi-Trudeau Tensions Over Sikh Activism

The issue of Sikh activism within Canada has been a source of pressure for a long time. When Modi hosted the Group of Twenty( G20) leaders’ meeting in New Delhi  before this month, he didn’t meet with Trudeau one- on- one but had a meeting during the  peak, where the Indian leader made him  apprehensive of” our serious  enterprises about the conditioning of  revolutionist  rudiments in Canada,” according to a statement by the Indian government. Relations between the two leaders have been strained for several times.

Trudeau’s India Visit Controversy

When Trudeau visited India in 2018, his  timetable, which was  fairly light on political meetings, was extensively seen by  numerous as a slight from New Delhi. Judges at the time interpreted Trudeau’s outreach to Sikh activists as a specific area of contention. In 2017, Canadian leaders were seen at an event in Toronto where separate banners and bills were displayed, including an image depicting the payoff of a Sikh  revolutionist leader in the 1984 Indian army operation. Addressing Trudeau’s allegations this week, the Indian government said,” Expressions of sympathy by political personalities in Canada for open support to  similar  rudiments are a matter of deep concern.” 

The statement also noted that” in Canada, incidents  similar as murder,  mortal smuggling, and organized crimes, including those involving multiple illegal conditioning, are nothing new. We call upon the Canadian government to take immediate and effective legal action against all anti-India  rudiments operating from their soil.” 

International Support for Khalistan Movement

The Sikh religion,  innovated in Punjab in the 15th century by Guru Nanak, has  roughly 25 million followers worldwide. They’re a  nonage in India, making up  less than 2% of the country’s 1.4 billion population, but are a  minority in the northern state of Punjab, which was  formerly a major Sikh conglomerate. 

The Khalistan Movement in India

The  ultramodern Khalistan movement traces its origins to the time of India’s independence from British rule in 1947 when some Sikhs demanded the creation of a separate Sikh state in Punjab. The partition hastily divided the former colony along religious lines,  transferring Muslims to the  recently formed Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs to the  recently independent India. Punjab, which was  resolved in half, witnessed some of the worst violence. Around that time, Sikhs began a significant struggle for political and artistic autonomy, scholars say, and the Khalistan movement gained significance.

Over time, there were bouts of violence between the movement’s  sympathizers and the Indian government, resulting in loss of life, including some prominent  numbers. It all came to a head in 1984 when  also- Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered the Indian army to storm the Golden Temple in Amritsar — the holiest place of  deification for Sikhs. The operation incited  violent  wrathfulness within the Sikh community, and as a result, Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh guards.

Khalistan Movement’s Global Impact

In the days that followed her death,  terrible violence erupted, with over 3,000 people,  substantially Sikhs, killed. A time  later, this violence  revealed over to Canada when Sikh secessionists bombed Air India Flight 182 departing from Toronto Pearson International Airport, resulting in the deaths of all 329 people on board, including  numerous Canadian citizens of Indian descent. 

While  sympathizers of Khalistan inside India are still on the  borderline, the movement is giving birth to a  position of sympathy from Sikh communities around the world, especially in Canada, Britain, and Australia. A small but influential number of Sikhs are  championing for the cause of Khalistan,  sometimes holding blackballs for  agreement on the idea of a separate  motherland.” 

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