THE KHALISTAN FIRESTORM

A DIPLOMATIC FACE-OFF BREAKS OUT AS CANADA ALLEGES AN INDIA HAND IN THE KILLING OF KHALISTANI MILITANT HARDEEP SINGH NIJJAR ON ITS SOIL. THE FALLOUT IS NASTY

- RAJ CHENGAPPA AND ANILESH S. MAHAJAN

The first inkling that India-Canada relations were in free fall came during the recently concluded G20 summit. India turned down Canada's request for a bilateral meeting and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had only a pullaside chat with his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau instead. During their discussions, while Modi expressed his deep concerns over the continuing anti-India activities by Khalistan extremists, Trudeau talked tough about "the importance of respecting the rule of law" and concerns about "foreign interference". It was, however, Trudeau's actions that followed the meeting that signalled how ties between the two countries had gone truly downhill. When Trudeau's prime ministerial aircraft developed a technical snag before take-off in New Delhi, he refused India's offer to fly him back in another aircraft and waited two days, confined mostly to his hotel room, till his plane was fixed.

It was a week later that the Canadian premier dropped a bombshell on India when he told members of Canada's House of Commons, the equivalent of the Lok Sabha, that "Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar". A ruler of a nation, especially one belonging to the powerful Group of 7 or G-7 nations, accusing India of being involved in an extra-judicial killing of a foreign citizen in a foreign country was unprecedented-that too, without providing evidence. An angry India described Trudeau's allegations as "absurd" and, in turn, charged Canada with becoming "a safe haven for terrorists, extremists and organised crime". The exchange sparked off a diplomatic firestorm that threatens to grievously gut relations between the two nations.