‘Brutal, No Holds Barred’: Observers, Analysts React To India’s Harshest Diplomatic Rebuke to Canada

Observers and analysts are interpreting India’s recent statements as its most severe response to Canada in the ongoing diplomatic dispute.

India on Monday criticised the Canadian government in a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) after Ottawa named the Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma as a ‘person of interest’ in an investigation.

India now reserves the right to take steps in response to the Canadian government’s efforts to “concoct allegations” against Indian diplomats, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a strongly-worded statement.

Reacting to the ministry’s statement released Monday morning, National Security Analyst Nitin Gokhale said Canadian PM Trudeau ‘deserved this tongue lashing’ referring to the MEA statement.

“Extraordinary. Frank, brutal, no-holds-barred response by India to juvenile

@JustinTrudeau. Normally, diplomats are, well, diplomats but the Canadian PM has gone too far this time and fully deserves this tongue-lashing,” he said in a social media post.

Observer Research Foundation’s (ORF) Sushant Sareen said that the statement shows that the ‘language will only become more strident, perhaps even personal’.

The government labelled the allegations levelled against the diplomats by the Canadian authorities as ‘preposterous’ and a ‘strategy of smearing India for political gains’ as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remains focused on ‘vote-bank politics’ in a statement, before summoning the Canadian envoy on Monday evening.

“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,” it said.

India also backed its envoy in Canada in the statement, saying: “High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma is India’s senior-most serving diplomat with a distinguished career spanning 36 years. He has been an Ambassador in Japan and Sudan, while also serving in Italy, Turkiye, Vietnam and China. The aspersions cast on him by the Government of Canada are ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt”.

Conservative Stephen Taylor in a post, reacting to the MEA statement on Monday morning, said that Justin Trudeau’s ‘track record with India is a disaster’ and said the Canadian PM is ‘willing to sacrifice Canada’s international reputation to cling to power’.

Journalist Smita Prakash of news agency ANI highlighted that the MEA statement was a ‘strongly worded response from India’ and held Trudeau responsible for the relations between both nations going downhill.

Senior fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies Abhijit Iyer-Mitra said: “Extraordinarily harsh response to Canada by the MEA. I’ve literally never seen language like this used for anyone – not even Pakistan. Congrats @JustinTrudeau, you’re literally in a category lower than corrupt 3rd world tinpot dictators”.

Recalls And Expulsions

India on Monday evening expelled six Canadian diplomats and announced withdrawing its high commissioner and other “targeted” officials from Canada.

It summoned the Charge d’Affaires Stewart Wheeler and said that in an atmosphere of extremism and violence, the Trudeau government’s actions “endangered” the safety of Indian diplomats and other officials.

Wheeler was summoned by MEA’s Secretary (East) Jaideep Mazumdar who told him that ‘India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India’ as per a statement released by the ministry.

In a late evening statement, the MEA said India has asked six Canadian diplomats including Charge d’Affaires Wheelers and Deputy High Commissioner Patrick Hebert to leave India by or before 11:59 pm on October 19.

The other diplomats expelled are Marie Catherine Joly, Ian Ross David Trites, Adam James Chuipka and Paula Orjuela (all first secretaries).

Senior advisor to the information and broadcasting ministry, Kanchan Gupta, said that the Canadian PM is ‘frightfully ungifted to wade into a diplomatic row that has brought Canada down to the level of Pakistan in terms of India’s perception and action’ in a lengthy social media post.

“Diplomatic ties may have waxed and waned in the past, but they have never been dragged down to this level by the Canadian Government. Nor has India been ever left with no other option given the open and brazen threat to the lives of Indian diplomats and Canada’s failure to ensure their safety and security,” he said.

“The only occasion that comes to mind is Pakistan failing to provide security to Indian missions,” Gupta recalled.

He also said Trudeau, fearing a defeat in the coming elections, is ‘desperate to pander to extremists, terrorists and separatists working with impunity from Canadian soil, protected by Canadian Government’, warning that these elements would turn on Canada like the fictional monster ‘Frankenstein’.