The ties between India and Canada witnessed a major downturn on Monday as India expelled six Canadian diplomats and announced withdrawing its High Commissioner, Sanjay Verma, from Canada.

This happened after Canada levelled allegations suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are ‘persons of interest’ in a matter related to an investigation into the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of choosing to use its diplomats, and organised crime to attack its citizens and make them feel unsafe on their soil, calling it a “monumental mistake” by New Delhi.

Trudeau said that the US has noted a similar pattern from India concerning an attempted extrajudicial killing. However, the US State Department has not made any comment so far.

India dismissed the allegations as “absurd” and politically motivated.

In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said that it reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India.

Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was gunned down in Surrey, British Columbia, in June last year.

The relations between India and Canada came under severe strain following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations in September last year of a “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar.

Experts believe that while restoring ties between India and Canada may be difficult, there are possible paths forward.The diplomatic tensions between India and Canada have so far not impacted the bilateral trade in goods between the two countries, think tank GTRI said on Monday.

However, it added that as this dispute drags on, both nations will need to carefully manage their actions to avoid a full-blown economic fallout.

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