Indian Home Minister Amit Shah (right), a close aide of PM Narendra Modi (left), was accused by Ottawa as being behind a campaign of violence and intimidation targeting Sikh separatists in Canada. - Reuters
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has condemned a “deliberate attack” on a Hindu temple in Canada and criticised “cowardly attempts to intimidate our diplomats”, in his first comments on a diplomatic face-off with Canada.
Modi, who has built a robust outreach particularly to the Hindu diaspora, also asked the Canadian government to “ensure justice and uphold the rule of law”.
“Such acts of violence will never weaken India’s resolve,” he wrote in a Nov 4 post on social media platform X.
He was reacting to violence at the Hindu Mahasabha Mandir or temple in Brampton in the Canadian province of Ontario on Nov 3. Videos, verified by Canadian media, had shown Sikh separatists, carrying Khalistani flags, clashing with Hindu devotees.
The Sikh activists are seeking a separate state of Khalistan carved out of the Indian state of Punjab.
Modi’s remarks came days after Ottawa accused his close aide, Home Minister Amit Shah, of planning a campaign of violence and gathering intelligence against Sikh separatists in Canada.
Ties between India and Canada have been on a steady downward spiral amid allegations of Indian involvement in the assassination of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023, with the naming of Shah seen as a tipping point, noted Indian analysts.
India lodged a diplomatic protest on Nov 1, and dismissed as “absurd and baseless” Canada’s allegations against Shah, the second most powerful politician in India after Modi.
Shah was named by Canada’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison at an Oct 29 House of Commons committee on national security. Morrison also admitted to confirming this information as a source to the Washington Post newspaper
Analysts said that it had become untenable for Modi to maintain his silence.
“I think India has been very measured in its approach so far, with the prime minister not at all engaging on this issue. But I think it became unsustainable after the home minister’s name was brought up by the Canadians and that too at the highest level of the Canadian government,” said Professor Harsh V. Pant, vice-president, studies and foreign policy, at the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi think-tank.
“I think, from India’s perspective, this is a deliberate escalation happening on the part of the Canadian government. Therefore, the Prime Minister had to intervene given the circumstances. But if you see the tone (of the statement) it is quite measured compared to what Trudeau has been saying now for more than a year.”
This is the first time Modi has spoken since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau levelled explosive accusations of the Indian government’s involvement in the assassination of Nijjar.
The Canadian government has since followed it up by accusing India’s envoy to Canada, Sanjay Verma, who has since returned to India, other diplomats and India’s spy agency of collecting information which was then allegedly passed on to criminal gangs to target Sikh separatists in Canada.
India has denied all these allegations and said Canada has not furnished any evidence.
There have been three rounds of tit-for-tat expulsions over the past year.
India, which sees Sikh separatism as a national security risk, has long urged Canada to rein in Khalistani separatists. Canada, on the other hand, has refused to curb speeches and protests by separatists saying it falls under the ambit of freedom of speech.
On Nov 5, India’s Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar called the surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada “unacceptable”.
While India is facing similar allegation in the US over a failed assassination plot against Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, there has been largely unequivocal criticism in India over the Canadian government’s very public accusations.
Neelam Deo, a retired ambassador and co-founder of Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations, said it was good that Modi had spoken out.
“It is good the prime minister came out and tweeted strongly, as the head of any government should, about an issue which concerns the people of that country. People in India are very concerned about what is going on.”
She added: “There is a time-honoured way of how countries deal with these issues. It seems the Canadians began everything on the wrong foot and made it difficult for the Indian government to respond in any other way.
“How do you respond to the (Canadian) prime minister making an allegation in his own Parliament instead of dealing with it bilaterally (with India).”
Others in India believe that it was contingent on Canada to de-escalate the crisis amid a freeze in ties.
“The Trudeau government needs to step back and resolve the issue calmly,” said Anil Wadhwa, a former ambassador and now a distinguished fellow at the Vivekananda International Foundation, a Delhi-based think-tank.
“There are huge stakes (for) both sides. Indian nationals and students on the Indian side and Canadian investments in India.”
Still, Canadian politicians and the leadership did not hold back in condemning the temple violence.
Trudeau has said that “every Canadian has the right to practise their faith freely and safely”, while opposition and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre vowed to “unite our people and end the chaos” ahead of Canadian elections in 2025.
Professor Reeta C. Tremblay, professor emerita in the political science department at University of Victoria in Canada, noted: “However, this response is not going to satisfy the Modi government’s complaints that its diplomats are not safe in Canada and that Canada is pandering to the Khalistani community.”
Prof Tremblay noted that members of the Hindu community have complained about the desecration of Hindu temples, and a Canadian Liberal Member of Parliament, Chandra Arya, had accused the Khalistani activists of targeting Hindu temples.
She added: “Unfortunately, this temple violence has the potential to create division between the Canadian Hindu and Sikh diaspora which have been coexisting peacefully.
“Canada has to not only work on recalibrating its diplomatic relations with India, but also the relationships between its Hindu and Sikh diasporic communities.” - The Straits Times/ANN
