India responds to murder charges, says Canada welcomes criminals

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OTTAWA – India's foreign minister has accused Canada of welcoming criminals from his country in response to recent RCMP arrests in a murder case that has fueled tensions between the two countries.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar also called Ottawa the No. 1 driver of what he described as a violent movement by Sikhs seeking to oust their country from India.

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“It's not as much of a problem in the US; Our biggest problem right now is in Canada,” Jaishankar said while addressing a forum for intellectuals in India on Saturday.

RCMP charged three Indian nationals last Friday in the death of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijar, who was shot and killed as he left a temple in Surrey last June.

Nijar was an active activist for the creation of a Sikh homeland known as Khalistan, and his death sparked a wave of protests and rallies against Indian diplomats in Canada.

The protests gained momentum last September after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused New Delhi of complicity in the murders.

Addressing a forum in the eastern city of Bhubaneswar, Jaishankar fielded questions on a wide range of topics.

One participant asked about countries like the US and Canada that want to partner with India while allowing New Delhi to support a separatist movement that it considers unconstitutional. Another participant asked about the arrests last Friday.

Jaishankar replied to both questions that the ruling liberals and other unknown political parties “make it easier” to vote for Sikh separatists and “give some legitimacy to the advocates of extremism, separatism, violence in the name of freedom of speech”.

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Protests against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government last year included posters urging people to “kill India” and offering cash rewards for the home addresses of Indian officials.

Jaishankar said he asked Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie about “attacks or threats” against Indian diplomatic missions and staff in Canada.

“I say to the foreign minister (Jolie), 'Let's say this happened to you. If it was your diplomat, your embassy, ​​your flag, how would you react?' That's why we have to keep our position strong,” he said.

Jaishankar also reiterated the ministry's demand that Ottawa allow criminal elements to operate in Canada and liaise with Sikh separatists in response to last week's arrests.

“Someone may have been arrested; the police may have done some investigating. But the fact is that (a) the number of gangs, (a) the number of people with ties to organized crime from Punjab are welcome in Canada,” he said, referring to the Indian region that the Khalistan movement wants to capture.

“These are wanted criminals from India; You gave them a visa… and yet you allow them to live there.''

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New Delhi raised similar concerns a week before Trudeau announced last September that he suspected Indian involvement in Nijar's death. In Trudeau's meeting with Modi, Jaishankar's ministry highlighted the “linkages of (Khalistan separatist) forces to organized crime, drug syndicates and human trafficking.”

But Ottawa has repeatedly insisted that India has not proven that the people it charges with terrorism have actually committed anything that meets the threshold set out in Canada's criminal code.

In February, a senior Canadian foreign service bureaucrat told MPs that Canadian officials were offering “seminars” on the rule of law to their Indian counterparts because India's definition of terrorism “doesn't always count in our legal system.”

In a speech on Saturday, Jaishankar said calls for the partition of Khalistan “can be reversed” but did not specify where he was coming from.

“It's not a one-way street world anymore,” he said. “There will be a reaction; others will either step in or oppose it.”

The Indian High Commission in Ottawa did not immediately respond to a question on whether Jaishankar was referring to Indian withdrawal or non-state elements.

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Jolie's office also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Jolie has previously said she wants to pursue private diplomacy with India.

Human Rights Watch says Modi has promoted an “ultranational ideology” that has overseen the deterioration of civil rights in India and fueled violent attacks against non-Indians.

The organization called on India to look into the possibility of involvement in Nijar's death, given the “repeated failure of Indian authorities to hold police and military personnel accountable for unlawful killings in the country.”

India has previously called on Canada to prosecute for praising those involved in the 1985 Air India bombings, which followed a period of intense ethnic violence.

This Canadian Press report was first published on May 5, 2024.

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