Alleged plot in New York strengthens Canada’s accusations against India
When Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government in September of being behind the killing of a Canadian Sikh activist near Vancouver, there was fierce denial, skepticism and muted support.
India vehemently denied the allegations and expelled 41 Canadian diplomats. Canada’s allies, including the United States, said little, concerned about offending an increasingly important counterweight to China and Russia.
Even Canada’s opposition leader demanded that Mr. Trudeau “come clean” with the evidence behind the allegations.
But Canada’s case against India and Mr. Trudeau’s lone stand were bolstered Wednesday after federal prosecutors in Manhattan revealed details of what they said was a separate plot in the United States with links to the killing in Canada.
“The news from the United States further underlines what we’ve been talking about from the beginning, which is that India needs to take this seriously, the Indian government needs to work with us to make sure we get to the bottom of this,” Mr. Trudeau told to reporters on Wednesday.
An Indian national was charged in an assassination plot orchestrated by an Indian government official who was also involved in the June killing of Canadian Sikh separatist near Vancouver Hardeep Singh Nijjar, according to a federal indictment filed Wednesday in Manhattan.
In the New York case, Indian national Nikhil Gupta attempted to arrange the ultimately botched assassination of a prominent American Sikh separatist in New York at the direction of the Indian government official, the indictment said.
Both Mr. Nijjar and the New York leader — identified as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the general counsel of the New York-based group Sikhs for Justice — were known in the Sikh diaspora as advocates for carving out a Sikh homeland from the Sikh -diaspora. Indian state of Punjab. The Indian government designated both men as terrorists in 2020.
“With the United States coming out with all this new information, it reaffirms Canada’s position,” he said Aaron Ettinger, an expert on Canadian foreign policy and U.S.-Canada relations at Carleton University. “You could feel the righteousness in Trudeau’s voice when he came out to speak.”
In June, Mr. Nijjar, the leader of the main Sikh temple in the Vancouver area, was gunned down in a violent, professional killing spree outside the temple. As Mr. Nijjar left the temple in his pickup truck, he was blocked by a white vehicle and two hooded men shot Mr. Nijjar with automatic gunfire, witnesses said.
According to the indictment filed Wednesday, hours after the killing, the Indian government official sent Mr. Gupta “a video clip showing Nijjar’s bloody body in his car.” The next day, Mr. Gupta is heard referring to Mr. Nijjar as “#4, #3” on a list of assassination targets in Canada and the United States.
Mr. Trudeau accused the Indian government in Parliament of involvement in Mr. Nijjar’s murder. He said the allegations were based on intelligence but declined to provide details. India described the allegations as absurd and called Canada a haven for Sikh separatists.
“There were lingering questions about why more evidence did not emerge,” said Sanjay Rupareliaa political scientist and expert on India at Toronto Metropolitan University.
The charges in the United States, he added, “strengthen Trudeau’s credibility. He took a very unusual and bold step in September to make these allegations himself, as Prime Minister, in the House of Commons.”
But while the New York case has boosted the credibility of Canada and its leader, it has also exposed the fragility of Canada’s foreign policy and its diminished role in the world compared to the rise of countries like India and China, experts say.
Even as Canada’s relations with India have deteriorated over Mr. Nijjar’s killing, tensions with China have increased amid mounting evidence of the Chinese government’s interference in Canadian politics.
After the indictment in New York, the Indian government said it would form a “high-level committee” “to investigate all relevant aspects of the case.”
The response was markedly different from India’s response to Mr. Trudeau’s accusations, experts said.
“The difference was striking,” Mr Ruparelia said. “In the case of the Canadian allegations, the Indian government has dismissed them as absurd and motivated. India retaliated by suspending visa services and forcing Canada to withdraw its diplomats from New Delhi. That only underlines the importance that Washington has vis-à-vis Ottawa.”
The Indian government’s response showed the changing place of a mid-sized Western power like Canada in a world being reshaped by other, more muscular countries, experts say.
“Compared to the 20th century, Canada’s place in the world has declined significantly,” Mr. Ettinger said. “The country no longer has the kind of power that Canadians once thought Canada had. Foreign powers clearly view Canada as a secondary consideration.”
Canada has also failed to forge strong ties with India that could have defused the recent crisis, Mr. Ettinger said. Canada, he said, views India mainly in economic terms and not as an important geopolitical ally.
“India, as a post-colonial country, wants its own strategic autonomy,” Mr. Ettinger said, “and Canada has really only seen it as an export market. So we are really talking past each other.”