New Delhi: India ordered the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats on Monday and withdrew its own envoy from Canada in response to what it said was Ottawa's decision to name him and others as "persons of interest" in an investigation.
India did not go into detail on the investigation, but relations have been fraught since 2023 when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had evidence linking Indian agents to the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader on his territory. India has long denied Trudeau's accusation. On Monday, it dismissed Canada's move on the inquiry and accused Trudeau of pursuing a "political agenda. 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 Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
It later said the MEA had asked the six Canadian diplomats to leave by Saturday and summoned Canadian Charge d'Affaires Stewart Wheeler to protest. Canada's government has not publicly confirmed that it has named any Indian official as a person of interest.
Wheeler on Monday reiterated Trudeau's accusation, saying in a statement: "Canada has provided credible, irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the Government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil.
"Now, it is time for India to live up to what it said it would do and look into those allegations." India has repeatedly said Canada has not shared any evidence to back its claim. "This latest step follows interactions that have again witnessed assertions without any facts. This leaves little doubt that on the pretext of an investigation, there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains," India's foreign ministry said earlier on Monday.
Canada withdrew more than 40 diplomats from India in October 2023 after New Delhi asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence. In June, a committee of Canadian parliamentarians named India and China as the main foreign threats to its democratic institutions, based on input from intelligence agencies.
The US has also alleged that Indian agents were involved in an attempted assassination plot of another Sikh separatist leader in New York in 2023, and said it had indicted an Indian national working at the behest of an unnamed Indian government official.
India expressed concern after the US raised the issue, dissociating itself from the plot and launching an investigation.
The accusations of assassination plots against Sikh separatist leaders in Canada and the US have tested their relationship with India as they look to forge deeper ties with the country to counter China's rising global influence.
The statement continued, "That his Government was dependent on a political party, whose leader openly espouses a separatist ideology vis-a-vis India, only aggravated matters." It further accused the Trudeau government of attempting to deflect criticism over foreign interference in Canadian politics by dragging India into the situation.
"It is no coincidence that it takes place as Prime Minister Trudeau is to depose before a commission on foreign interference," it said. "It also serves the anti-India separatist agenda that the Trudeau Government has constantly pandered to for narrow political gains."
The MEA accused the Trudeau government of providing a platform for violent extremists and terrorists to threaten, harass, and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada, citing instances of death threats. "All these activities have been justified in the name of freedom of speech," the MEA noted. It also highlighted that individuals who entered Canada illegally had been fast-tracked for citizenship and that multiple extradition requests from India concerning terrorists and organised crime figures in Canada had been ignored.
The MEA stated that High Commissioner Verma is India's most senior serving diplomat, with a distinguished career spanning 36 years. "He has been Ambassador in Japan and Sudan while also serving in Italy, Turkiye, Vietnam and China. The aspersions cast on him by the Government of Canada are ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt," it asserted.
Finally, the MEA acknowledged its awareness of activities by the Canadian High Commission in India that align with the current government's political agenda. Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trudeau engaged in a "brief exchange" at the East Asia summit in Laos.