Link to article : https://www.cbsnews.com/news/canada-india-diplomatic-row-sikh-activist-nijjar-assassination-diplomats-expelled/
On Monday, October 14, Canada and India expelled each other’s senior diplomats. This has arisen amongst growing tensions over the murder of a Canadian activist outside of a Sikh temple last June. The Canadian government has accused the Indian government of involvement in the “murder and extortion” of Canadian citizens. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claims that the officials on the case last year had credible evidence that proves this to be true. However, India had firmly denied these allegations, claiming, “all imputations to the political agenda of the Trudeau Government and is centered around vote blank politics,” as said in a statement by India’s External Affairs Ministry said in a statement Monday. However, the activist who was murdered, Hardeep Nijjar, was placed on India’s Home Affairs terror watch list prior to his killing.
This critical event demonstrates that countries must make their citizens feel safe. Despite the killing being over a year ago, due to the state of unrest among the citizens and Sikh activists in Canada, the government acted in a way to calm the public. This event could lead to a rise in the Sikh religion across India and Canada. India will likely see a surge in protests from the Sikh community. In Canada, due to their rapid action to expel their diplomats, they will see praise from their citizens who had previously felt endangered,
India’s response to Canada expelling their senior diplomats was to do the same to Canada. The US has also called on India to take the allegations by Canada seriously, acting as a buffer between the two and attempting to ease tensions. Both countries being partners with the US will help to calm down any aggression between the two. The United States, as we’ve talked about in class, is the world power at the moment, and I believe that the two countries will act and do whatever the United States tells them.
As mentioned prior, the United States is the main power on the global stage. In class, we have begun discussing the theories that pertain to international relations as they revolve around system polarization. Right now, the world has a unipolar system favored by hegemonic realism. I think this event best relates to this session of class because both countries are being settled by one country, the United States, which oversees all global events.