India, explained.

A Sikh community rally outside the Indian consulate in Toronto last year following allegations of Indian government involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar (Cole Burston/AFP via Getty Images)

Australia can’t escape the India-Canada crossfire

The latest revelations are a wake-up call over the extent of India’s foreign interference.

Priya Chacko

15 October 20245 min read

Explosive new allegations have surfaced from an ongoing Canadian investigation into the involvement of the Indian government in the alleged assassination last year of a local Sikh activist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Canadian police now claim that Indian diplomats have worked with criminal gangs to orchestrate a wider campaign of extortion, intimidation and coercion against members of the local South Asian community in the country, resulting in homicides, home invasions, drive-by shootings and arson.

India has reacted to the claims with bluster. It pre-empted a Canadian announcement overnight on the issue by releasing a lengthy statement beforehand, accusing Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of harbouring “hostility to India” and sheltering those it calls terrorists for advocating an independent Sikh state of Khalistan. India claimed it was forced to withdraw its High Commissioner and diplomats from Ottawa because Canada could not be trusted to protect them.

In fact, the Indian High Commissioner was among six diplomats the Canadian government expelled for their alleged involvement in orchestrating attacks, after India refused to waive their diplomatic immunity. India has now expelled six Canadian diplomats in retaliation.

According to the Washington Post, India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval made clear India would deny all links to violence in Canada. But contrary to India’s claims that Canada has not provided a shred of evidence, the Canadian government says it has provided extensive detail in support of its allegations. This evidence appears to link Nijjar’s killing to US Justice department allegations of an assassination plot targeting a Sikh activist in New York, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. In that case, India has now reportedly arrested a former official, known only as CC-1 in US court documents, who has been revealed to be Vikram Yadav, an agent with India’s intelligence agency, Research and Intelligence Wing (RAW).

Canada claims that Indian diplomats posted to the country had links to criminal gangs, including one led by Lawrence Bishnoi, who operates from a jail in Gujarat, to orchestrate a campaign of violence against Canadian Sikhs. The aim, according to police, was to collect information on targets and carry out acts of intimidation, while also creating the perception of an unsafe environment for South Asian communities and to interfere in Canada’s democratic processes.

Canada's Justin Trudeau addressing the media after allegations that Indian diplomats and agents are implicated in "escalating" homicides and extortion in the country (David Kawai/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

India has accused Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of harbouring “hostility to India” (David Kawai/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

While shocking, these allegations against India in Canada have some precedent. In the early 1980s, the late Canadian investigative journalist Zuhair Kashmiri published a series of articles in the Globe and Mail claiming that Indian agents posing as diplomats had infiltrated the Sikh community with the aim of repressing and discrediting backers of the Sikh cause while promoting pro-India positions. Alleged activities included paying informers, gaining control of ethnic newspapers, financing temple takeovers and spreading disinformation in the mainstream media. Kashmiri reported that Canadian authorities knew of these activities but were reluctant to act due to India’s status in the Commonwealth and fear of being seen as sympathetic to the Khalistan cause. Then, as now, India complained that Canada was harbouring separatist terrorists, while Canada refused to curtail lawful political activity by Sikh dissidents.

During the 1980s, RAW was emboldened by Indira Gandhi, a prime minister with authoritarian leanings, like India’s current Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Gandhi’s international tactics mirrored her domestic strategies in the state of Punjab, where her Congress party was losing support. These included facilitating the rise of a radical Sikh preacher, Bhindranwale, against the main moderate opposition party. Bhindranwale later became the leader of the Sikh militant movement.

No Canadian government could ignore evidence that the Indian government has repeatedly violated Canadian sovereignty, targeting its citizens with lethal violence.

Similarly, as I argue in the latest issue of Australian Foreign Affairs, the Modi regime has been behaving externally as it governs internally – with authoritarianism, violence and incompetence, all while simultaneously claiming to be the Vishwa Bandu (world’s friend) and the victim of vast conspiracy theories aimed at keeping India down. When Indian farmers (many of whom were Sikhs from Punjab) waged a year-long campaign against Modi’s poorly conceived agricultural policies in 2020-21, they were met with police violence and deemed to be parjeevis (parasites) sponsored by China, Pakistan and “Khalistani” terrorists in Canada and the United Kingdom. While the policies were repealed, the deeper grievances that saw the farmers protest remain unaddressed.

The allegations against the Indian government in Canada are an example of transnational repression – an increasingly prevalent practice of authoritarian states including Russia, China and Turkey to curb dissent against their regimes. This time, unlike in the 1980s, they have resulted in fracturing the India-Canada relationship. India’s actions under Modi are more extreme, and the Canadian Sikh community is now politically powerful.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is increasingly embattled. India has tried to deflect the allegations by accusing him of seeking to play politics at home. But no Canadian government, whether led by Trudeau or the Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, could ignore evidence that the Indian government has repeatedly violated Canadian sovereignty, targeting its citizens with lethal violence. Canada is conducting a high-profile inquiry into foreign interference, in which officials have named India as the second-most active perpetrator of foreign interference after China, using proxies to target the Sikh community with violence, influence Canadian politicians, spread disinformation through ethnic media and support pro-Indian government candidates in the last two Canadian elections.

Australia has also been a target of India’s apparent campaign of transnational repression. Media reports have alleged that ASIO expelled a “nest of spies” linked to India in 2020 for activities including monitoring members of the diaspora and attempting to cultivate relationships with politicians and officials. Queensland police have speculated that pro-Khalistan graffiti attacks on Hindu temples in Brisbane may have been perpetrated to direct attention to the Sikh separatist group, Sikhs for Justice.

Unlike Canada, the United States and Germany, which have prosecuted Indian intelligence assets, Australia has refused to officially implicate India. This is contrary to its obligations as a signatory to the Declaration on Principles to Combat Transnational Repression to “publicly and privately call out perpetrators of transnational repression”. It allows India to evade accountability for undermining Australian sovereignty and the civil liberties of its citizens. The alarming evidence from Canada should be an impetus for Australia to rethink this approach.

About the author

Priya Chacko

Priya Chacko is Associate Professor of International Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Adelaide.

Topics

India Canada