In a tit-for-tat move, India and Canada expel diplomats as rift deepens

Move comes after Ottawa's allegations linking Indian High Commissioner to Nijjar's killing

New Delhi: India on Monday expelled six Canadian diplomats and announced withdrawing its High Commissioner and other “targeted” officials from Canada after strongly dismissing Ottawa’s allegations linking the envoy to a probe into the killing of Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in a major downturn in already frosty ties between the two nations.

India’s decision to recall High Commissioner Sanjay Verma and some other diplomats came shortly after the Canadian Charge d’Affaires Stewart Wheelers was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Wheelers was bluntly told that baseless “targeting” of the Indian envoy and other officials was “completely unacceptable”.

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‘The Washington Post’, quoting unnamed Canadian officials, reported that Canada on Monday ordered six Indian diplomats to leave the country, including Verma and the top consular official in Toronto. In a late evening statement, the MEA said India has asked six Canadian diplomats including Charge d’Affaires Wheelers and Deputy High Commissioner Patrick Hebert to leave India by or before 11:59 pm on October 19.

The other diplomats expelled are Marie Catherine Joly, Ian Ross David Trites, Adam James Chuipka and Paula Orjuela (all first secretaries). In its reaction to Canada’s charges against Verma, New Delhi described them as “concocted” and “preposterous imputations” and ascribed the allegations to the “political agenda of the Trudeau government that is centred around vote bank politics”.

In its statement, the MEA said India received a “diplomatic communication from Canada yesterday suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are ‘persons of interest’ in a matter related to an investigation in that country”.

Canadian Charge d’Affaires (CDA) Wheelers was summoned by MEA’s Secretary (East) Jaideep Mazumdar and it was underlined to him that in an atmosphere of extremism and violence, the Trudeau government’s actions “endangered” the safety of Indian diplomats and other officials.

“We have no faith in the current Canadian government’s commitment to ensure their security. Therefore, the government of India has decided to withdraw the high commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials,” the MEA said. “It was also conveyed that India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India,” it said.

It is learnt that Verma and other officials will return from Canada in the next few days. The relations between India and Canada came under severe strain following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s allegations in September last year of a “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar.

He was gunned down in Surrey, British Columbia, in June last year. New Delhi had rejected Trudeau’s charges as “absurd”. The Canadian charge d’affaires told reporters that his government has done what India has long been asking for.