The move marks a severe escalation in the diplomatic tussle between Ottawa and New Delhi, as Canada accused Amit Shah, the Indian home affairs minister, of being the mastermind behind the campaign of violence and intimidation against Sikh activists.
Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison told the members of the national security committee that Shah – a close confidant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi – is the person the Canadian government believes is the key figure behind actions against Sikh separatists in Canada, allegedly including the assassination of a prominent activist.
While India has not yet officially responded to the charges, Indian government officials have denied the alleged assassination plot. Morrison acknowledged that Shah was involved in a conversation with The Washington Post, which first reported these allegations.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that Canada has credible intelligence indicating the involvement of agents of the Indian government in the killing of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June 2023.
The killing has heightened the diplomatic dispute between the two nations, whereby Canada expelled Indian diplomats connected to what it described as an orchestrated campaign against Sikhs. India responded by expulsioning Canadian officials.
The situation has been further exacerbated by the fact that Washington has accused former Indian intelligence officer Vikash Yadav of allegedly masterminding a failed plot to kill the Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Canada, in New York City.
Nathalie Drouin, Trudeau’s national security adviser, told the security committee that Canada had evidence to prove the Indian government has been collecting intelligence on Indian nationals and Canadian citizens in Canada using diplomatic channels.
Canadian officials said they passed this evidence on to India, but New Delhi consistently denied those reports, calling them “absurd.” Sources close to the Indian government called the evidence “very weak” and “flimsy,” adding that it would not substantially endanger Shah’s tenure.
The Modi government has labeled Sikh separatists as terrorists, a security menace. These activists are asking for an independent homeland for Khalistan, an independent state that needs to be carved out of India. This militant uprising of the 1980s and 1990s was very costly in terms of the loss of human life.
The anti-Sikh riots of 1984 killed thousands of people in revenge after the murder of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, acting in response to her ordering the storming of the Golden Temple to eliminate Sikh separatist militants.
