India expels Canadian diplomats, withdraws its envoys to Canada

In a stern response to Ottawa’s accusations against New Delhi over the killing of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil, New Delhi first announced the withdrawal of High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and later expelled six Canadian diplomats on Monday. Ottawa had accused India of making a “fundamental error.” in connection with the killing of Sikh separatist.

The Ministry of External Affairs announced in a release on Monday that it is expelling Stewart Ross Wheeler, acting high commissioner, Patrick Hebert, deputy high commissioner, and four first secretaries, including Marie Catherine Joly, Lan Ross David Trites, Adam James Chuipka, and Paula Orjuela of Canada. The MEA release stated that these six high-ranking diplomats had been asked to leave India by or before 19 October.
On Monday, Secretary (East) Jaideep Mazumdar summoned the Canadian Charge d’Affaires Wheeler and told him that in an atmosphere of extremism and violence, the Trudeau Government’s actions endangered the safety of Indian diplomats.

Informing Wheeler about the Indian government’s decision to withdraw the Indian High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials, Mazumdar said that the baseless targeting of the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely “unacceptable.” He also told the Canadian envoy that New Delhi had lost faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure the security of Indian envoys.

This development occurred after New Delhi received a diplomatic communication from Canada on Sunday suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are ‘persons of interest’ in a matter related to an investigation in that country.

 New Delhi has firmly rejected these accusations as “preposterous imputations” while ascribing them to the Trudeau government’s Trudeau Government, which is around vote bank politics.

Supporting Indian high commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma,  MEA added that Verma is India’s senior-most serving diplomat with a distinguished career spanning 36 years. It said that casting aspersion on him by the Government of Canada is “ludicrous and deserves to be treated with contempt.”