‘We have no faith’: India to withdraw high commissioner to Canada amid diplomatic tensions

The Indian government on Monday said that it is withdrawing High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and its other diplomats from Canada.

This came after New Delhi rejected a Canadian diplomatic cable naming Indian envoys as “persons of interest” in an investigation in the country.

While the ministry did not confirm to which investigation Ottawa was referring, NDTV reported that it is related to the June 2023 murder of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.

“The Government of India strongly rejects these preposterous imputations and ascribes them to the political agenda of the Trudeau government that is centred around vote bank politics,” the ministry said in response to the diplomatic communication received from Canada on Sunday.

Verma is India’s senior-most serving diplomat and the “aspersions cast on him by the Government of Canada are ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt”, said New Delhi.

In a subsequent statement, the ministry said that it had summoned Canadian Charge d’Affaires Stewart Wheeler. “He was informed that the baseless targeting of the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely unacceptable,” it said.

The ministry said it underlined that in an “atmosphere of extremism and violence, the Trudeau government’s actions endangered” the safety of Indian diplomats.

“We have no faith in the current Canadian Government's commitment to ensure...

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