This article reports on the public allegations from the Canadian government concerning the recent targeting of a Indian Sikh separatists inside of Canada. India immediately denied the allegations of using Indian mobsters based in Canada to kill its political rival’s that are outside their boarders. They’re main argument against these allegations are the requests India had previously sent to Canada concerning extradition of these criminals back to India. India then claiming that Canadians committing crimes against Canadian’s isn’t their concern. These accusations have caused both countries to expel each others diplomats raising tensions between India and Canada. This differs greatly from how India is treating the US investigation into Indian diplomats. India’s External Affairs Minister accused Canada of withholding extradition or Sikhs with terrorism charges in India. Canada has been processing 26 extradition request for the last 10 years.
This situation just highlights the lack of willingness for certain wester countries in accepting India’s growing presence on the world stage. With their elevation to a power house in south Asia it has brought on challenges to western countries power. Though they still cooperate with America officials they are beginning to push back against less prominent western governments. Canada’s failure to address India as an important state when requesting extradition only soured this relationship though it may not be a key relationship at the moment it comes at a bad time if Canada wants to stay on the good side of a up and coming world power. The escalation and breakdown of cooperation between these states is indicative of the policies Canada has been taking domestically which have seen individual power becoming more important to Canadian foreign policy than maintaining good relations. It is also an interesting move as India’s requests to crack down on a Sikh independence movement inside of Canada have been denied on the basis of free speech for these migrants while under the same administration Canada cracked down on its own citizens during the large trucker demonstrations in 2022.
This connects to the realist theory as a state of anarchy between these two states is only really kept from becoming a large international interests due to the American hegemony as both of these parties can not afford to piss the United States off and thus against her own interests India has to roll over for the American investigation of Indian diplomats but feels it has grown strong enough to challenge a country reliant on the US.