One need not be an international relations expert, nor a career diplomat, to understand where India has gone wrong in the ongoing Canada-India row over India’s alleged involvement in the murder of pro-Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian national, in the parking lot of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara at Surrey in Canada’s British Columbia province.
The prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, has openly alleged that India’s external intelligence agency, RAW (Research and Analyses Wing), was complicit in the crime. America has seemingly bought the Canadian story which it tends to link with the attempted murder of another pro-Khalistan separatist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an American national, on American soil. There is an uncanny similarity between the two events.
Considering that in power terms America and Canada do not match, India’s response, both official and popular, is diametrically opposite. Officially, India is vitriolic against Canada but completely guarded insofar as America is concerned, allowing the vitriol to be only released through pro-Bharatiya Janata Party journalists (the so-called ‘godi‘ media) and public intellectuals. The most common refrain of the latter is that Americans too, or for that matter all big powers, indulge in such adventurism on foreign soils. But this is the ABC of international relations. Comically, it amounts to the kind of logic a burglar may supply after stealing in a businessman’s house: Hasn’t the businessman also robbed his clients?
The fact remains that the Indian government has been caught on the wrong foot both in Canada and America.
Let us concentrate here only on the Canadian chapter. Here is a common sense explanation of India’s mishandling of the situation. Assuming that Justin Trudeau was placating his Sikh constituency and assuming that his popularity rating was plummeting, is it not all the more important then for the Indian intelligence agencies to alert themselves against any misstep of theirs that might embarrass New Delhi? I am consciously not mentioning the South Block here where the country’s external affairs ministry is housed.
Of late, foreign policy loaded statements or actions emanate routinely from the offices of the Union home minister Amit Shah and the National Security Adviser Ajit K. Doval thereby systematically marginalising the assigned role of the Minister of External Affairs, S. Jaishankar. It seems his only job now is firefighting. The case of Bangladesh provides the most recent example. If one single person has to be identified who is solely responsible for vitiating the Bangladeshi popular mind against India, it is Amit Shah. His election rallies, whether in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, or northern India at large, irreparably damaged India-Bangladesh relations.
Without claiming knowledge as to what has really happened in the Nijjar case let us go, step by step, to build our speculation logically.
Speculation 1
The Indian Mission in Ottawa knew that India’s RAW had not killed Nijjar. If so, the Indian authorities should have immediately gotten in touch with their Canadian counterparts to exchange necessary notes for even without soiling their hands their mission had been accomplished, which was akin to both eating and having the cake at the same time. Building trust with the host country should be the first task of any foreign mission.
Speculation 2
The Indian intelligence agencies did engineer the killing of Nijjar. But the Indian mission in Canada was not allowed to know about it. In case of many high level (mis)deeds of the state, local functionaries are kept in the dark. It may puncture the ego of foreign-service professionals, but it does happen sometimes. When Henry Kissinger was making his historic trip to China in 1972 from Pakistan, even the US ambassador to Pakistan was kept in the dark, while the Pakistani top brass of the Yahya government knew about every detail. The US ambassador was misled to believe that Kissinger was resting in Quetta after a stomach upset which he had contracted during his just concluded visit to India.
Speculation 3
The Indian intelligence agencies had engineered the killing of Nijjar and the Indian mission was kept in the loop. If so, the Indian high commission would naturally be called upon to answer questions raised by the Canadian government and the press. Just throwing the ball back to the Canadians authorities is neither diplomacy nor politics. It is even worse to return the ball from the Indian soil after getting expelled by the Canadian government (discussed below). Bad diplomacy does not get compensated by ‘good politics’ played from the home turf.
Also read: ‘More Expulsions Likely, Diplomatic Disaster’: What the Canadian Media Says About Nijjar Row
Let me conclude by making a few remarks.
One, international relations literature seldom talks about racialism but it is writ large to any discerning student of global history. One must not forget that all the members of the Five Eyes grouping are essentially Anglo Saxons who trust each other more than other ethnics. Everything in history cannot be documented but there is something which is also recognised as ‘sense of history’. This can explain why these countries are on Canada’s side.
Two, Sikhs have an important social and political presence in Canada and it is foolhardy to think that all Sikhs are Khalistanis. If Canada is accused of being blind to the potential threat they pose to India’s territorial integrity, then the Indian state too should be mindful of the nonsense that is doled out at every drop of the hat to call Sikhs Khalistanis. During the farmers’ movement, it virtually became a pastime for several BJP leaders to brand Punjab farmers ‘Khalistanis.’
Three, Indian foreign service personnel are expected to be more professional. Sanjay Kumar Verma, the expelled Indian envoy to Canada, should have avoided expressing his hostility towards Prime Minister Trudeau so candidly. No one knows whether Trudeau will come back to power after the October 2025 election but a diplomat’s job is to keep all options open. In an interview to the Indian Express (October 21, 2024) Verma said: “Khalistani extremists are being encouraged all the time. This is my allegation. I am not giving any evidence of that (emphasis added).” So Trudeau, initially not giving any evidence while speculating upon the plausible complicity of Indian agents in the murder of Nijjar, should not be criticised either.
Four, if Trudeau is accused of playing to his Sikh gallery he is authorised to play to his native gallery. But our prime minister Narendra Modi has corrupted the model of political noninterference by playing even to the galleries located in foreign nations. His clarion call ‘abki baar Trump sarkar (this time it’s Trump’s rule)’ is still fresh in our memories. Only four years ago, hand-in-hand with the Republican candidate Donald Trump, he unabashedly canvassed for NRI (and largely Gujarati) votes for Trump, whom he called his “friend.”
Last, but not the least, let us Indians reconcile ourselves to the hard reality that Indians are yearning to go to Canada, or to even settle there, and not the other way round, our tall claim of having become the world’s fourth-largest economy notwithstanding. And that makes all the difference. It is well known that Canada remains one of the popular dunki routes for sneaking into the United States illegally.
Partha S. Ghosh is Senior Fellow, Institute of Social Sciences.