The diplomatic crisis between Canada and India, which began over a year ago, entered an acute phase on Monday, October 14 with the reciprocal expulsion of senior diplomats. This spectacular escalation came just hours after the Canadian federal police announced that they had credible and irrefutable evidence of the involvement of agents of the Government of India in serious criminal activities in Canada, clandestine activities such as intelligence gathering and interference in democratic processes.

Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, said in a statement that she had asked New Delhi to waive the diplomatic immunity of six of her officials, including the ambassador, so that they could be questioned regarding a number of violent incidents targeting members of the South Asian community, in particular the Sikh community, in many cities across the country. When New Delhi refused, they received an expulsion notice. India claims they have been recalled.

The charges are extremely serious and follow the assassination in June 2023 of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil. Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead in the parking lot of the Sikh temple he ran in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia. This Canadian citizen had been campaigning for the creation of an independent Sikh state, Khalistan, in northern India.

Ottawa was quick to point the finger at India. On September 18, 2023, the head of India's foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Pavan Kumar Rai, was expelled from Canada. In November 2023, an event had given weight to the Canadian scenario: The American justice system had in turn accused a RAW agent of having recruited a henchman to attempt to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist of American nationality. The plot had failed.

The Canadian police and authorities now suspect Indian agents of involvement in other criminal acts and violence. According to the Washington Post, India has set up an "operational chain in which Indian diplomats in Canada gather intelligence on suspected Sikh separatists, which is then used by RAW to identify targets for attacks by a criminal gang led by Lawrence Bishnoi, imprisoned in India, whose organization is very active in Canada."

The American daily claims that this intelligence-gathering operation, carried out under threat and duress, was overseen by India's highest diplomat in Ottawa, supported by an Indian espionage official, and at the top of the state by Amit Shah, India's powerful and feared interior minister and closest ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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