The mega G20 summit in India has been within the information for lots of proper causes, together with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s camaraderie with world leaders reminiscent of US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron, amongst others. However, amid the grand success of the multilateral occasion, the friction between India and Canada has additionally come to the fore.
Vivek Katju, a retired Indian diplomat who served as ambassador in Afghanistan and Myanmar, revealed a startling element whereas discussing the underlying causes of the simmering tensions. He unveiled that Canada not solely rejects the visas of Indian safety personnel who had been posted in Jammu and Kashmir but in addition asks for the placement of their service of their visa purposes.
He acknowledged, “Canada regularly denies visas to members of our security forces who have served in Jammu and Kashmir. Canada has also denied visas to members of our services, about which we do not talk about and I don’t wish to talk about, including very senior people who have served in these services. Canada while asking for visa applications demands that these security personnel should inform the Canadians of the places where they have served. That is very often confidential.”
Vivek Katju made the revelations on India Today TV throughout a debate hosted by Shiv Aroor.
He additional conveyed, “Now, I do not know if the government of India has ever objected to it or if it has taken it up. It goes back to the time when I was secretary in the ministry (Ministry of External Affairs) and in charge of the management of relations with Canada. I remember then, and I think it is important for your viewers to know, that they had done so with a member of the Border Security Force (BSF) and I had called the Canadian high commissioner in and said this is unacceptable.”
He talked about that it has been 13 years for the reason that incident. “I personally feel that the time has come when the government of India should send out an advisory to all security personnel including retired personnel that they will not respond to such information being sought by the Canadians with regard to visa applications and that we should have a candid chat with them because this is completely unacceptable.”
Journalist Gaurav C Sawant elaborated on the difficulty and disclosed, “They actually ask for every detail. There’s a separate column in the visa for retired officers whether you are with CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force), BSF, Indian Army, Navy or Air Force.”
He added, “If you have served in Jammu and Kashmir you are supposed to mention the year that you served in Jammu and Kashmir, the area you have served in Jammu and Kashmir and the duty, whether you were a brigade commander or a division commander in Kulgam, in Wussan, in Kangan. All of that you are supposed to mention and India has objected to it.” However, he wasn’t conscious if issues continued to stay the identical or not.
I had no concept about this 😖 Listen to what Ambassador @VivekKatju says about one in every of main friction factors in India-Canada relations: pic.twitter.com/D122pvqPq9
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) September 10, 2023
The frigid India-Canada ties
Notably, India and Canada’s relations have taken successful for the reason that latter has supplied a secure haven to pro-Khalistan terrorists and separatist components. Hindu temples are commonly desecrated and vandalised. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not taken any substantial motion in opposition to Khalistan supporters regardless of their perilous anti-India actions attributable to his vote-bank politics.
Recently, Khalistanis vandalised the Shree Mata Bhameshwari Durga Devi Society in Surrey British Columbia. An anti-India graffiti with the slogan “Punjab is not India” was sprayed on the partitions of the Hindu temple. Notably, that is the second occasion whereby the Khalistanis focused a Hindu temple in Canada’s Surrey, British Columbia.
They had positioned posters which advocated for a referendum pertaining to “the assassination of Hardeep Nijjar” and investigating India’s position in his demise on the entrance of the temple in a bid to terrorise the Hindu group. Hindu temples have been commonly underneath assault by the Sikh separatists within the nation.
They have referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a terrorist, stomped on the Indian tricolour with sneakers and even brutally thrashed a member of the Indian who was making an attempt to avoid wasting the nationwide flag throughout protest rallies in opposition to India which alleged that the Indian businesses had been behind the killing of Khalistani terrorists and ‘Sikhs For Justice’ chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Khalistanis even threatened the Indian High Commissioner in Canada and incited violence in opposition to the consul basic of India and the consul basic of India in Vancouver. They went so far as to take out a “Kill India” to avenge the demise of the Sikh extremist who was eradicated on 18 June.
The Sikh fundamentalists celebrated the assassination of India’s former Prime Minister late Mrs. India Gandhi and displayed a tableau in a Brampton parade in June that confirmed her carrying a blood-stained white saree along with her arms up as turban-clad males pointed weapons at her. A poster behind the scene learn, “Revenge.”
Justin Trudeau has defended himself and claimed that Canada has at all times taken ‘serious action’ in opposition to terrorism and refuted criticism that his authorities has been lax on pro-Khalistan activists inside the nation. However, India has repeatedly slammed Canada for its inaction on the aforementioned occurrences and voiced that room should not be supplied to extremist and terrorist components within the title of freedom of expression.
The Canadian Prime Minister introduced that the protestors in Canada didn’t have the best to dam the financial system when truckers demonstrated in opposition to the ‘undemocratic’ COVID-19 insurance policies of his administration final yr together with obligatory vaccination for truckers coming into Canada by means of the US-Canada border.
Notably, he tried to intervene within the inside decision-making means of the Indian authorities in what appeared like an try to appease the Khalistani components in Canada. He and his Ministers expressed ‘concern’ over the protests over farm legal guidelines in 2020 which had been later rolled again by the centre.
He endorsed the demonstrations and claimed, “Canada will always be ready to defend the right to peaceful protest. We believe in the importance of dialogue and that’s why we reached out to multiple means directly to Indian authorities to highlight our concerns.”
The doubtful conduct of the Canadian authorities has led to the chilly ties between the 2 international locations and a breakthrough can solely occur if Canada takes the legitimate grievances of the Indian authorities severely and takes applicable motion.
