India-Canada struggle to mend diplomatic ties despite visa easing

The process of restoring strained diplomatic relations between India and Canada is expected to be lengthy, with both sides holding staunch positions despite India’s recent surprising move to partially ease visa restrictions for Canadians, according to officials and experts.

India recently decided to partially restore visa services after suspending them in response to Ottawa’s assertion that Indian agents may have played a role in the murder of a Canadian Sikh separatist leader from Punjab state.

While India’s decision to relax visa restrictions might have raised some hopes for improved relations, it is not considered a breakthrough. Officials and experts in both countries suggest that neither side has a strong incentive to expedite a return to normalcy at this point.

The mutual recriminations that have arisen since the murder claim have put significant strain on the long-standing relationship between the two countries. However, India dismissed Canadian allegations as “absurd” and conveyed to those countries that raised the issue and supported Canada’s demand that it was not India’s policy to undertake such actions.

Since then, neither New Delhi nor Ottawa looks likely to take dramatic steps to reconcile soon as Canada’s murder investigation proceeds and Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares for Indian national elections by May.

“The relationship is in deep crisis, perhaps its worst ever,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington. “Each side may have a strong interest in the crisis not getting completely out of control, but that doesn’t mean there are strong incentives to resolve the crisis.”

Ajay Bisaria, India’s ambassador to Canada from 2020 to 2022, said the relationship is in a “de-escalation phase” following “quiet diplomacy”.

Earlier, India took concrete steps including suspending the issuance of visas to Canadian nationals declaring a Canadian diplomat as PNG and applying the principle of parity in the strength of the Canadian High Commission in Delhi with that of the Indian High Commission in Ottawa.

India argued that Canadian diplomats were interfering in India’s internal affairs. Thus, the implicit grounds for requesting the withdrawal of Canadian diplomats were their interference in India’s domestic affairs. Under the Vienna Convention, no diplomat is permitted to do so.

With inputs from Reuters.