Indian envoy warns of ‘big red line’

OTTAWA — India’s envoy to Canada insisted Tuesday that relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he described as “a lot of noise.”

During his first public remarks since the RCMP arrested three Indian nationals in the case, High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma seemed to link the case to domestic crime.

But he warned that Sikh groups in Canada who call for the separation of their homeland from India are crossing “a big red line” that New Delhi sees as a matter of national security.

“Indians will decide the fate of India, not the foreigners,” Verma told the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly stood by allegations that the Indian government was complicit in the killing of a Sikh Canadian last year.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar had long advocated for the creation of a Sikh country called Khalistan. He was shot dead last June outside his temple in Surrey.

Nijjar was under an arrest warrant in India, but Canada never extradited him due to a lack of credible proof that he committed any serious crime.

The killing sparked a wave of protests, with some Sikh groups circulating posters that threatened Indian diplomats in Canada by name.

Ottawa paused trade negotiations with India last August, a month before Trudeau publicly linked New Delhi to the case.

The diplomatic strain continued into the fall as India forced Canada to remove two-thirds of its diplomats from the country, threatening to strip them of diplomatic immunity, and temporarily halted processing visas for Canadian visitors.

Verma said the deeper problems underneath the recent “negative” developments have to do with Canada’s misunderstanding of “decades-old issues,” which he blames Canadians of Indian origin for resurfacing.

He said his chief concern is “national-security threats emanating from the land of Canada,” noting that India does not recognize dual nationality, so anyone who emigrates is considered a foreigner.

New Delhi deems it unconstitutional to call for separation from India, but Canada has long said Sikh people in Canada are entitled to free speech if they’re not inciting violence.

“Foreigners having, if I can call it, an evil eye on the territorial integrity of India — that is a big red line for us,” he said.

He did not specify whether he was referring to foreigners being involved in the Nijjar case or the issue of Sikh separatism more broadly.

Verma added that unspecified media reports have been “a bit coloured,” though he acknowledged “there would be some facts” in them.

Over the weekend, Indian Foreign Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had reacted to the RCMP arrests by accusing Canada of welcoming in criminals from his country.

But Verma struck a conciliatory tone on Tuesday, saying the two countries are “trying to resolve this issue.”

“We are ready to sit down at the table any day, and we are doing that,” he said.

Hours before Verma’s remarks, Joly said her goal is still to conduct diplomacy with India in private.