India-Canada ties were destroyed today The relationship won’t recover for years But there's a 10 year backstory to…

India-Canada ties were destroyed today The relationship won’t recover for years But there's a 10 year backstory to this whole crisis Here's all you need to know🧵

Today, India decided to withdraw its High Commissioner Sanjay Verma from Canada It blamed Canada's govt for failing to protect Indian diplomats This comes after Canada indicated Indian diplomats were being investigated for ties to the Hardeep Nijjar assassination case

Let's start in 2015 That's when Trudeau became Canada's Prime Minister He came to office after a successful visit by PM Modi in 2015 Over the previous decade, Canada's PM Stephen Harper pushed for a stronger relationship with India

In 2010, Harper helped start talks on a Free Trade Agreement He also signed a nuclear agreement with India in 2015 where Canada agreed to sell uranium Harper also made 2011 the "Year of India" in Canada So its safe to say that Trudeau inherited a strong bilateral relationship

During his election campaign, Trudeau's Liberal Party called for closer trade ties with India But not much else was known on his India policy However, a perception took hold that Trudeau failed to capitalise on the momentum that Harper had built up

In 2016, Canadian High Commissioner Nadir Patel had to face questions about whether the relationship had been put into "auto pilot" This was because experts felt Trudeau had neglected India during his first year as PM Talks on an FTA also slowed, according to Hindustan Times

Trudeau's 2018 visit to India only came after his efforts to strike a trade deal with China during a visit in 2017 ran into the ground As mentioned before, part of the speculation among experts was that Trudeau had focused on China while India was relatively low priority

In 2018, Trudeau travelled to 🇮🇳 in a bid to push the relationship forward It was, to put it mildly, a controversial visit Jaspal Atwal, a man convicted of trying to kill an Indian Cabinet minister in 1986, received an invite for a dinner from the Canadian High Commission

Atwal was a part of the pro-Khalistan movement The invite was quickly cancelled but it caused significant public outrage in India While India and Canada announced new investments and a joint framework for cooperation on counter-terror, this incident overshadowed the visit

Canada mentioned pro-Khalistan terror groups like Babbar Khalsa international for the first time in that joint framework on terror That led to hope that Canada was looking to change its "soft on Khalistan terror" image That wasn't to be

India Today reports that in 2018, Canada released a report identifying Khalistani extremism as a threat to public safety BUT. pressure came in from these groups, who are politically active and are major supporters of the Liberal Party Trudeau's govt caved under pressure

In the next version of the report, all mention Khalistan/Sikh extremism was removed Indian officials were disappointed by this backtracking Things got worse in 2020 when Trudeau made comments on the ongoing farmer law protests India shot back against this interference

In 2021, Trudeau's party lost its majority in parliament It formed a coalition with Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the New Democratic Party Singh has spoken at a pro-Khalistan rally and termed the 1984 riots a "genocide" He is a prominent India-sceptic

While the relationship on defence and trade continued to grow, political tensions simmered underneath In 2023, the manhunt for extremist Amritpal Singh led to internet shutdowns by authorities Jagmeet Singh condemned the "draconian" measures adding to tensions

The crackdown led to protests against India's High Commission in Canada and the alleged use of smoke grenades Pro-Khalistan groups also aired propaganda glorifying the attack They also aired specific propaganda attacking specific Indian diplomats for the death of Hardeep Nijjar

These attacks on its diplomats angered Delhi Angered by the lack of action by Canadian authorities, India's Foreign Minister S Jaishankar attacked Canada for practicing "vote bank politics" But Canada's govt thought there was something to the allegations made on Nijjar's death

In September 2023, Canada's PM Justin Trudeau publicly accused Indian govt officials of involvement in the plot to kill Nijjar It did not provide India with specific evidence of its allegations That led to tensions and the withdrawal of several Canadian diplomats from India

From trade to immigration, the entire India-Canada relationship has ground to a halt India has slammed Canada for pandering to pro-Khalistan groups Canada has demanded India take action on this case So today's revelations simply wrecked an already unsteady relationship

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