Recently there has been a dispute between Canada and India. This conflict revolves around the death of a Sikh Separatist, Nijjar. One of Canada’s Prime Ministers, Justin Trudeau, claims India assassinated the unfortunate Sikh Separatist on Canadian soil.
Why would India have a reason to kill Nijjar? Nijjar was a member of the Khalistan movement. The Khalistan movement is an identity movement that strives for a Sikh homeland outside of the control of the Indian Government. In 1984, there was a clash between Khalistanis and the government which led to the death of a Prime Minister and thousands of Sikhs. In 1994, there was an attack that intended to kill Hindus but instead killed many civilians. One of the men responsible for the attack attended a temple named “Guru Nanak Sikh Gurudwara.” This temple was in Vancouver and its members supported the bombings and their intentions. Nijjar was 16 years old during these bombings. He eventually rose to be the head of this temple. His connection with the temple and being a Khalistani made him a terrorist in India’s eyes.
Of course, this claim is not small, as Canada deemed that India assassinated a Canadian citizen. Due to this claim, there is a lot of backlash. First, Mélanie Joly, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Canada, announced, “We’ve expelled a top Indian diplomat from Canada,” (Justin Trudeau Accuses India of a Killing on Canadian Soil, NY Times). India in retaliation gave a Canadian diplomat 5 days to leave the country. Now trade negotiations are paused between the two countries due to the serious conflict. In addition, India is preventing anyone in Canada from applying for visas to visit India. India also warned its citizens to be cautious of “Anti-Indian” activities in Canada.
This puts Canadian intelligence partners in a tricky place. All of the partners want close relations with India. This is because most of the West views India as an alternative to China for trade. In fact, in the past 10 years, America has strengthened its relationship with India. However, India will now be hesitant to work with America due to the allegations that Canada has presented.
Due to these events that started almost 30 years ago, presently, there is now a lot of tension between India and Canada. The relationship between India and Canada has become chaotic and is likely to further grow. This tension is only the start of what has happened since the allegations and Canada and India are already in disarray. Many people at the moment are awaiting actual evidence that this was an assassination from the Indian government before acting. If evidence is eventually made public, all we can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
