India’s visa processing center in Canada says it has suspended services as a rift widened between the countries after Canada’s leader said India may have been involved in the killing of a Canadian citizen.
India’s visa processing center in Canada suspended services Thursday as a rift widened between the countries after Canada’s leader said India may have been involved in the killing of a Canadian citizen.
Ties between Ottawa and New Delhi, two key strategic partners on security and trade, have plunged to their lowest point in years after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week said there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader on its soil.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Canadian citizen who had been wanted by India for years, was gunned down in June outside the temple he led in Surrey, outside Vancouver.
For those who think Canada should suspend visas from India too, most Indians going to Canada on visas are students and people travelling for work. The route to citizenship in Canada is fairly streamlined so most Indian residents are already citizens, which by Indian law requires them to surrender their Indian citizenship. So the vast majority of Canadians getting Indian visas are visiting family in India. Meaning blocking visas from India would have a much different message as it would effect a much different effect.
Source - Am a Canadian with family who moved here from India.
Which is exactly why India went for this move and also why it's stupid and risky. They're banking on Canada not having the balls to respond in kind, even if Canada should. I kind of hope they do though, literal assassins from India have been infiltrating Canada and tbh if im a Canadian government official, protecting Canadian lives would be orders of magnitude more important than foreigners education and possible citizenship.
Canada was supposed be the one suspended the Visa service for Indians. I would love to know the proportion of non Indian decent Canadians visiting India vs Indians visiting Canada. Besides businessmen, I don’t think India is really a destination for Canadians. So I don’t think that Canadian will loses sleeps for not having Indian visa. However, I think Canada should also suspend Visa for them too.
The reason for the suspension is that the supporters of Nijjar have publicly expressed a desire to assassinate Indian Diplomats in Canada. This affects the processing of the visas.
Ties between Ottawa and New Delhi, two key strategic partners on security and trade, have plunged to their lowest point in years after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week said there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader on its soil.
The latest move comes a day after India warned its citizens to be careful when traveling to Canada because of “growing anti-India activities and politically condoned hate-crimes.”
Canada has yet to provide any evidence of Indian involvement, but if true it would mark a major shift for India, whose security and intelligence branches have long been significant players in South Asia, and are suspected in a number of killings in Pakistan.
New Delhi’s anxieties about Sikh separatist groups in Canada have long been a strain on the relationship, but the two have maintained strong defense and trade ties, and share strategic interests over China’s global ambitions.
In March, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government summoned the Canadian high commissioner in New Delhi, the top diplomat in the country, to complain about Sikh independence protests in Canada.
Trudeau had frosty encounters with Modi during this month’s Group of 20 meeting in New Delhi, and a few days later Canada canceled a trade mission to India planned for the fall.
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Accusing a country of killing someone on foreign soil without evidences or proof, and expelling it's diplomat requires a strong reply!
The only basis for the accusation is Hardeep Singh was declared a terrorist in India, responsible for 2007 blast in Punjab that killed six people and injured 40 and the 2009 assassination of Sikh Indian politician Rulda Singh along with other crimes.