India hits out at ‘cavalier’ Trudeau as rift with Canada deepens

Canadian PM said India made ‘horrific mistake’ by violating country’s sovereignty as relations plunge to new low.

India has accused Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of “cavalier behaviour” amid the ongoing diplomatic fallout over last year’s murder of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday that Canada had presented “no evidence whatsoever” to support its “serious allegations” that Indian government agents had targeted Canada-based Sikh separatists, including naturalised Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, murdered in Vancouver in June 2023.

The ministry hit out at Trudeau, who said during a parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday that Canada had “clear … indications that India had violated Canada’s sovereignty”.

The prime minister’s behaviour had caused “damage” to India-Canada relations, the ministry said.

Speaking at the inquiry, Trudeau accused India of making a “horrific mistake”, alleging Nijjar’s murder was part of an extensive Indian operation to systematically target Sikh dissidents inside Canada campaigning for an independent Khalistani state.

On October 14, 2024, India again rejected claims it was connected to the killing of Nijjar, insisting that the “preposterous” allegations were a “strategy of smearing India for political gains”.

That day, India and Canada kicked out each other’s diplomats over the rift.

Canada’s top envoy to New Delhi, Stewart Wheeler, who has been ordered to leave by Saturday night, has said Ottawa provided “credible, irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the Government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen”.

Canadian authorities have arrested four Indian nationals in connection with Nijjar‘s murder.

Nijjar – who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015 – had advocated for a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan, carved out of India.

He had been wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.

Last year, the Indian government briefly curbed visas for Canadians over the affair.

India’s government has also faced accusations from the United States of attempting to assassinate a Sikh separatist on its soil.

In November 2023, the US Department of Justice announced charges against Indian national Nikhil Gupta over an alleged plot targeting Sikh-American activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, also a dual national of the US and Canada.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies