Canada acting up
The Canadian approach towards former Indian officials who apply for tourist or other short-term stay visas to visit Canada is becoming increasingly intrusive and obnoxious. This process began around 2010 with former Indian military and paramilitary personnel, but now covers others, including former intelligence officials, and, most strangely, former diplomats, some of whom have served in Indian missions in Canada. While it is the sovereign right of any state to allow or deny entry to foreigners, it is equally expected of responsible countries, especially democratic, to conduct themselves in keeping with internationally expected norms while considering visa applications. This Canada is not doing. And, the fact that millions, some of them illegally, wish to enter Canada is no justification for becoming intrusive or behaving with discourtesy.
Bringing parity to the strength of Indian and Canadian representations, reducing defence-to-defence ties and limiting political-level contacts can be some measures.
All countries, even those in which tourism is an important part of the economy, seek to ensure that foreigners with criminal records or those not capable of sustaining themselves do not enter the country. Advanced countries also scrutinise visa applicants to deny entry to those who, in their view, are likely to stay on illegally in the country after the expiry of their visas. These are reasonable precautions, though they are irksome for visa applicants. However, it is one thing to seek information that is entirely personal and whose disclosure does not violate the applicant’s country’s laws and rules and quite another when the applicant is asked to give information which is confidential. This is what Canada has been asking of former Indian security officials for over a decade and now this is being extended to other retired officials too.
It is true that Canada has a large and growing Indian diaspora which has economically prospered and has done very well politically. Indeed, Canadians of Indian origin have been and are members of the Canadian Parliament and cabinet ministers too. One Indian-origin political leader has also served as a Premier of a Canadian province. This shows that Canadian citizens of Indian origin are gaining political heft and that Canadian society and polity are partly shedding their Caucasian-centric identity. At the same time, Canada’s acceptance of Indian talent, in the area of high technology and medicine, for instance, is to its advantage. This is an aspect which should not be overlooked by Indian elites or the government.
A few months ago, a former Indian High Commissioner applied for a tourist visa to visit his child who lives in Canada. He was surprised to get a communication from a Canadian representative in India requiring him to give details of all his assignments as a member of the Indian Foreign Service from the time he joined to his retirement. Normally, if a former ambassador to a country wishes to visit it, he is given a visa without any fuss and on a priority basis. This is a basic diplomatic courtesy. The demand was all the more surprising, for there is little doubt that Canada’s foreign ministry would have made enquiries about the Indian diplomat’s antecedents prior to accepting him as India’s High Commissioner in Ottawa.
A few years ago, a senior Indian intelligence official who had served in the Indian Mission in Canada and who subsequently liaised with Canadian intelligence was kept waiting for a tourist visa for months. Finally, the Canadian intelligence intervened and he was given only a 10-day visa!
Some time ago, a retired Indian Army officer who had earlier visited the country on a number of occasions and had an active visa was humiliated when he reached Canada. He was interrogated on arrival; his passport was seized and he was told that his case of stay would be considered by an immigration board.
In addition to these cases, Canada is now making detailed and unprecedented enquiries about Indian diplomats posted there. Consequently, postings of Indian diplomats are getting delayed. Normally, such delays occur only between countries which have adversarial relations.
Canada has targeted former Pakistani defence officers too. Some years back, a Canadian university which sponsored a Track 2 process of Indian and Pakistani retired defence, intelligence officers, diplomats and academics decided to hold a meeting in Canada (normally these meetings took place in a South-East Asian country) but could not do so. The Indian participants in the Track 2 process, of which I was one, were told that Canadian authorities had not agreed to give visas to retired army officers from Pakistan.
Now it is for Pakistan to decide how it wishes to handle Canadian intrusive policies on visas. As far as India is concerned, it has to be conscious that its armed and civil services adhere to the democratic traditions of this country. It should therefore be completely unacceptable that its retired personnel are asked to furnish information about their careers, some of which is classified. The only cogent reason appears to be that all this information is sought to ascertain that they have not been involved in human rights violations during their careers on the basis of their postings. This would especially apply to defence personnel in sensitive areas. Meanwhile, Canada’s attitude on Khalistan for all its protestations of support for India’s unity is soft and inadequately responsive.
During all these years, India has not taken a strong position on this issue. The time has come to do so, for it is not a matter of individuals and their convenience but of the honour of our defence and civil services. Instructions should be given to all that there should be no response to intrusive Canadian questions. India needs to take a set of measures to show that Canada’s disdain for Indian democracy is unacceptable; certainly, Canada applies a different yardstick for western democratic countries. These steps can include bringing parity to the strength of Indian and Canadian representations, reducing, if not freezing, defence-to-defence ties and also limiting political-level contacts. The continuing laissez faire Indian approach is no longer tenable, especially for a government that takes pride in its nationalistic credentials.
