India and Canada, two G-20 nations with increasingly more global projection, are in the midst of a diplomatic crisis. It was last Monday when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revealed that the country's intelligence services implicated Indian authorities in the murder on Canadian soil of a leader of the Sikh community.. “It is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” he said in the Lower House of the Canadian Parliament.
Following Trudeau's statement, the Foreign Minister announced the expulsion of a “key diplomat” from India, responsible for Indian intelligence in the country.. It only took New Delhi a few hours to respond and it did so by announcing the expulsion of a senior diplomatic official from Canada.
The origin of the crisis is the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, which occurred last June in the town of Surrey, in western Canada.. He was shot by unknown assailants in the parking lot of a Sikh temple.
“In the strongest possible manner, I recommend that the Government of India work with Canada to get to the bottom of this matter.”
Singh Nijjar had been accused of terrorism by the Indian authorities for advocating the creation in the state of Punjab of an independent country, Khalistan, for the Sikh minority.. According to Indian media, he was organizing an unofficial “referendum” to consult the community on its support for an independent Sikh nation.
Diplomatic escalation
During the last G-20 summit, held in India on September 9 and 10, Trudeau already asked his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, for explanations.. “In the strongest possible way, I recommend that the Government of India collaborate with Canada to get to the bottom of this matter,” the Canadian president said on Monday, describing what happened as “extremely serious.”
Far from moderating his position, Modi went further and ordered the suspension of visas for Canadians indefinitely.. The Indian leader, who has elections in 2024, accuses Canada of serving as a “paradise for terrorism.” They are the same terms he uses to refer to Pakistan, his great enemy.
The Indian Foreign Minister has asked Canada to reduce its diplomatic mission in the Asian country. “Their staff here is much more than ours in Canada,” a spokesperson said Thursday.. “I assume there will be a reduction on the Canadian side,” he added.
More than 700,000 Sikhs in Canada
Already on September 1, the Canadian Government announced the suspension of talks with India for the signing of a free trade agreement, without explaining the reasons.. Canada has also canceled a trade mission to India that should have taken place in October.
New Delhi criticizes Ottawa for tolerating anti-India separatist activity on Canadian soil. They refer to the separatist sentiments promoted by part of the Sikh minority in Canada, a large part of the Indian diaspora. This minority defends the formation of Khalistan, a nation for the Sikhs in a territory that belongs to India and which is at the same time the origin of this monotheistic religion.
About 1.8 million people of Indian origin live in Canada, of which about 770,000 are Sikhs.. The leader of the social democratic New Democratic Party (NPD), Jagmeet Singh, the fourth party in the Canadian Parliament, is Sikh.
Sikhs want to be a nation again
The Sikhs or Sikhs are the followers of Sikhism, a religion founded by Guru Nanak, which developed in the context of the conflict between the doctrines of Hinduism and Islam during the 16th and 17th centuries in the region of Punjab (then the Mughal Empire).. It is one of the four religions of Indian origin and the sixth in the world by number of believers (just over 30 million).
The Sikhs ruled a confederation of kingdoms known as the Sikh Empire, which disappeared after two wars with the British.. The Sikh territory was thus incorporated into the British colony of India. India's independence in 1947 did not change that status.
It would not be until 1980 when the independence movements seeking the creation of a sovereign Sikh state declared the independence of Khalistan.. But New Delhi was not willing. To dislodge a group of Sikh rebels, Prime Minister Indira Gandh sent the Army to occupy the Golden Temple of Amritsar (a sacred place of the Sikhs).. From the occupation the building was bombed: there were more than 500 dead.
It is one of the four religions of Indian origin and the sixth in the world by number of believers (just over 30 million).
In revenge for entering a sacred place, the Sikhs assassinated Gandhi (they were his own Sikh bodyguards). The murder sparked the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.. Various attacks against the Sikhs left several thousand dead.
The Sikh community in India represents approximately 1.5% of the population and the largest is in the state of Punjab. The Sikhs want to be an independent nation because they already were, but also because they accuse India of discriminating against them: arbitrary arrests, sexual abuse against Sikh women and girls, beatings, disappearances, etc.. In any case, Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India until May 2014, was a Sikh.
2024, elections in India (Bharat)
The Indian attitude in the crisis with Canada must be seen in light of the calendar: in 2024 there will be presidential elections. Modi seeks re-election and does so using all the nationalist tricks at his disposal. Part of that strategy is changing the country's name.
It is expected that during a special session of Parliament (scheduled for September 18-22), the Government will present a resolution to change the official name of India to Bharat. It is already Bharat for the natives of that country, as stated in the Constitution, but they want it to be like that for the rest of the world.
The dispute over the country's name has gained ground since opposition parties announced in July a new alliance, called INDIA, to overthrow Modi and defeat his party at the polls.. The acronym stands for Indian National Alliance for Inclusive Development.
The name change follows other measures proposed in August, when the Indian Government submitted a series of laws to Parliament with the aim of replacing the justice system of the British colonial period and, specifically, the Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedures and the Act of 1872.