India suspends visa companies for Canadians, calls for parity in diplomats

India suspended visa purposes in Canada on Thursday as a consequence of unspecified safety threats, whereas demanding Ottawa cut back its diplomatic staffing in India on grounds of interference in home affairs in an escalation of the festering diplomatic disaster between the 2 international locations.

The feud was sparked Monday by the Canadian authorities’s announcement of “credible allegations” the Indian authorities orchestrated the extra-judicial slaying of a Sikh separatist in Canada. New Delhi had slammed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claims as “baseless” and “absurd” and accused Ottawa of being sympathetic to anti-India causes.

“The difficulty is just not about journey to India — those that have legitimate visas and other forms of doc like OCI are free to journey to India — however the concern is of incitement of violence and the creation of an surroundings that disrupt the functioning of our excessive fee and consulates,” Arindam Bagchi, the official spokesperson for India’s Ministry of Exterior Affairs, mentioned at a daily information convention in New Delhi on Thursday.

OCI is brief for Abroad Citizenship of India, a type of everlasting residence for individuals of Indian origin that grants a lifetime of entry into the nation, together with some advantages. 

The transfer will curtail Indian journey for Canadians, even when they apply in third international locations, Bagchi mentioned, including that this momentary suspension will contain all visas, together with e-visas. He mentioned this example will probably be reviewed regularly.

This suspension follows a journey advisory urging Indian nationals to “train utmost warning” whereas touring in Canada and a reciprocal expulsion of senior diplomats. 

“We’ve seen Canadian diplomatic interference in our inner affairs, this can be a issue that is been taken into consideration for in search of parity in energy and rank equivalence … in our mutual diplomatic presence,” Bagchi added, with out elaborating. “Their numbers listed here are very a lot increased than ours in Canada. The main points are being labored out.”

Bagchi’s announcement got here hours after the Canadian Excessive Fee in New Delhi mentioned it might “quickly modify workers presence” within the nation after a few of its diplomats obtained threats on social media platforms.

Thursday’s developments symbolize a big escalation in tensions between India and Canada as New Delhi pressed its case.

The Canadian authorities is investigating allegations that Indian authorities brokers could also be linked to the homicide of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a naturalized Canadian and outstanding advocate for an unbiased Sikh homeland referred to as Khalistan.

“No particular data has been shared by Canada on this case,” Bagchi mentioned. “We’ve conveyed to the Canadian facet, made it clear to them that we’re keen to have a look at any particular data offered to us, however to this point we have not obtained any particular data.”

Talking to reporters Thursday on the sidelines of the United Nations Common Meeting in New York, Trudeau repeated assertions he first shared Monday.

“I feel it is extraordinarily necessary that as a rustic with a robust and unbiased justice system, that we enable these justice processes to unfold themselves with the utmost integrity,” mentioned the Canadian chief.

“However I can guarantee you the choice to share these allegations on the ground of the Home of Commons Monday morning was not performed evenly … it was performed with the utmost seriousness,” Trudeau added.

Trudeau didn’t straight deal with a sequence of questions on the character of the proof, if he would share the proof publicly, if Canada has any plans to reciprocate with tit-for-tat motion in response to India’s suspension of visa companies in Canada or the seeming lack of public help amongst its allies for Ottawa in its standoff with India.

“We name upon the federal government of India to take significantly this matter and to work with us to shed full transparency and guarantee accountability and justice on this matter,” he mentioned.

“We’re a rustic of the rule of regulation. We’re going to proceed to do the work essential to preserve Canadians protected and to uphold our values and the worldwide rules-based order. That is our focus proper now,” Trudeau added.

Canada is dwelling to the biggest Sikh inhabitants outdoors of the northern Indian state of Punjab.

Sikh separatist Nijjar was reportedly serving to to arrange an unofficial international referendum among the many Sikh diaspora when he was killed on June 18 by two masked gunmen within the parking zone of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, the Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia, the place he was president.

New Delhi had labeled him a terrorist in 2020, accusing him of plotting a number of focused murders via the years, fees that Nijjar had denied. He had settled in suburban Vancouver and ran a plumbing enterprise after apparently first migrating from India within the Nineteen Nineties and gaining citizenship in March 2015.

“From our facet, very particular details about felony actions by people based mostly on Canadian soil have been shared to the Canadian authorities regularly, however not been acted upon,” Bagchi mentioned.

“There’s a diploma of prejudice right here. They’ve made the allegations, they’ve taken motion on them. To us, it seems these allegations by the federal government of Canada are politically pushed,” Bagchi added, with out elaborating.

Whereas Canada views peaceable Sikh activism as a part of free expression, India views Canada’s continued tolerance as an endorsement of Sikh separatism that it regards as an infringement on its home affairs.

Below the management of the Congress Get together, India finally crushed the bloody insurgency that shook the nation within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties when the minority Sikhs agitated for an unbiased Sikh homeland in Punjab, claiming hundreds of lives within the course of. Sikh bodyguards have been convicted of the 1984 assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Given the recollections of the previous, there are fears of a revival within the Sikh separatist motion, which has deep roots since India gained independence within the late Forties.

Indian International Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had on June 8 condemned on-line video footage of a parade float within the Canadian metropolis of Brampton that glorified violence and vengeance in its depiction of the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

“That Canadian political figures have brazenly expressed sympathy for such parts stays a matter of deep concern,” India’s International Ministry mentioned in a separate assertion Tuesday. “The house given in Canada to a variety of unlawful actions together with murders, human trafficking and arranged crime is just not new.”

This concern can also be flaring up at a time when the Indian authorities, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Get together, has been accused of marginalizing minorities within the nation.

The deepening rift between India and Canada is regarding Ottawa’s closest allies — Australia, the UK and the USA. If allegations are true, this will nicely derail the U.S. courtship of India as a companion in a broader Indo-Pacific technique aimed toward countering China.

The surprising consensus on the G20 leaders’ summit, together with Modi co-fronting the launch of U.S. President Joe Biden’s international infrastructure initiative in New Delhi, underscore the rising partnership between India and the U.S.

U.S nationwide safety advisor Jake Sullivan instructed reporters Thursday the U.S. is in “steady communication” with Canada and in touch “at excessive ranges” with India on the dispute between each international locations, declining to elaborate any additional.

Because it stands, Canada halted commerce talks with India forward of the current Group of 20 nations leaders’ summit in New Delhi, the place Trudeau mentioned he raised the difficulty of Nijjar’s homicide together with his Indian counterpart.

In a banner 12 months for Indian diplomacy that additionally noticed the world’s most populous nation tackle the rotating presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Group, Modi took the chance to flip the usually sedate G20 presidency right into a branding car to burnish India as a key international participant advocating the pursuits of the International South, whereas serving as an interlocutor with the developed nations.

“Look, if there’s any nation — if you’re speaking about reputational points and reputational harm — if there’s any nation that wants to have a look at this, it is Canada and its rising fame as a spot, as a protected haven for terrorists, for extremists and for organized crime,” Bagchi mentioned.

— CNBC’s Naman Tandon contributed to this text.