India-Canada tensions flare up over pro-Khalistan activities, gangsters taking shelter
The already soured India-Canada ties have taken another hit with both accusing each other of interfering in their ‘internal matters’.
New Delhi has added that Canada was aiding ‘illegal migration and organised criminal activities’.
Late on Tuesday night, Canada blamed India of ‘interference’ in its internal matters, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), hit back accusing Canada of ‘consistently interfering in India’s internal affairs’.
India’s comments on a Canadian Commission’s report:
🔗 https://t.co/MksX55h7kr pic.twitter.com/58jzrx1X9P
— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) January 28, 2025
The MEA in statement posted at midnight in response to Canadian allegations, rejected the report about alleged activities on purported interference.
It went on to add: “It is in fact Canada which has been consistently interfering in India’s internal affairs. This has also created an environment for illegal migration and organised criminal activities”.
Rejecting the report, the MEA said: “We reject the report’s insinuations on India and expect that the support system enabling illegal migration will not be further countenanced”.
The matter of criminal and wanted person living in Canada was officially flagged to Canada.
In October last year, the MEA had said its requests to the Canadians for arresting Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang members were not heeded. “They haven’t taken any action on our core concerns. There is a political motive also behind this," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said then.
India is also unhappy with Canada on handling the extradition requests for Hardip Singh Nijjer, whose killing in Canada in June 2023 started the diplomatic row. Nijjer was wanted by Indian agencies and was facing an Interpol ‘red corner notice’. His name was flagged to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2018, seeking extradition.
In July 2020, India declared Nijjer as an “individual terrorist” under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. At Punjab Police’s request, Interpol issued a red notice against him in 2016 while the National Investigation Agency (NIA) announced a ₹10 lakh bounty on his head in July 2022.
Nijjer, who had fled India in February 1997 using the name ‘Ravi Sharma’ on a passport issued from Uttarakhand (then part of UP), had been arrested by Punjab Police in 1995 on suspicion.
Canada never extradited him, rather gave him Canadian citizenship.
Meanwhile, Canada’s ‘public inquiry into foreign interference in federal electoral processes and democratic institutions’, made public on Tuesday accused India of Nijjer’s killing. It said “assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, coupled with credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and derailed efforts (of having better relations between the two countries). India has repeatedly denied these allegations.
On the Indian diaspora, the Canadian report alleged, “India’s activities primarily target the approximately eight lakh members of the Sikh diaspora in Canada and aim to promote a pro-India and anti-Khalistan narrative”.
On India’s angst against Canada, the report says “India perceives Canada as not taking India’s national security concerns about Khalistani separatism (the goal of an independent Sikh homeland in northern India called “Khalistan”) sufficiently seriously.”
The UN World Migration Report 2024 says "there are some 28 lakh persons of Indian origin in Canada".
The report cites the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) statement in October 2024, on violent criminal activity in Canada, including homicides and extortion and says, “(it has) connections to agents of the Government of India”.
It alleged “India may have attempted to clandestinely provide financial support to preferred candidates during the 2021 election without the candidates’ knowledge”.
“India is the second most active country (after China) engaging in electoral foreign interference in Canada,” the report claimed.
This interference has targeted all levels of government. Like China, India conducts foreign interference through diplomatic officials in Canada and through proxies, it alleged adding that India also uses disinformation as a key form of foreign interference against Canada.
In October 2024, Canada expelled six Indian diplomats and consular officials in reaction to a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens by agents linked to the Government of India. India responded not only by declaring a Canadian official persona non grata, but by lifting the diplomatic immunity of a further 41 Canadian diplomats in India, effectively expelling them.