How India-Canada ties turned rocky under Justin’s father, Pierre Trudeau

India and Canada are staring at a historic low in diplomatic ties in recent years. The already rocky relations worsened earlier this week after Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau alleged a “possible link” between India and the murder of pro-Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June. On Thursday (21 September), he refused to provide any evidence to back his claims and instead called on India to cooperate with an investigation into the killing. India has rebuffed the allegations, saying Canada has become a “safe haven for terrorists, for extremists, and for organised crime”. This is not the first time that India and Canada’s ties have taken a hit. When Justin’s father Pierre Trudeau was the prime minister of Canada, relations between the two nations took a downward turn on several occasions. Let’s take a look at India’s rift with Canada under Pierre Trudeau. Row over India’s nuclear tests India and Canada’s relations withered after India carried out its first nuclear test in Rajasthan’s Pokhran in 1974. Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau called the test a “betrayal” as the plutonium used came from the nuclear reactor CIRUS. As per India Today, CIRUS, which was commissioned in July 1960, was built under Indian physicist Homi Jenhagir Bhabha’s leadership in collaboration with Canada. Codenamed Operation Smiling Buddha, India billed the test as a “peaceful nuclear explosion”, with “few military implications”, as per Indian Express. However, India faced global backlash, including from the United States and Canada, over the nuclear test. Trudeau, who had warned his Indian counterpart Indira Gandhi of pulling out of the civil nuclear programme if New Delhi tested a nuclear device, withdrew support. His government also recalled Canadian officials working on another reactor in India, India Today reported citing a Columbia University research paper. [caption id=“attachment_13158672” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Pierre Trudeau at a fund raising dinner in Toronto in 1983. Reuters File Photo[/caption] After India conducted a series of nuclear bomb tests in 1998, Canada imposed sanctions on New Delhi. As per ThePrint, reports at the time called it a “crusade” against India by then Canadian foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy. Jean Chrétien, from Trudeau’s Liberal Party, was Canada’s premier then. He had visited India in 1996 in a bid to salvage the strained bilateral relations. “Relations reached a new low after the 1998 nuclear tests because of the human-security agenda of then-foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy, which promoted global nonproliferation rather than Canada’s bilateral interests with India,” academic Arthur G Rubinoff wrote in a 2002 research paper. However, the ties were again damaged and the sanctions slapped on India were lifted only in 2001. It was in 2010 that New Delhi and Ottawa signed the Nuclear Cooperation Agreement during then PM Manmohan Singh’s visit to Canada for the G20 Summit. ALSO READ: Why Justin Trudeau has been 'soft' on Khalistani extremists in Canada Kanishka bombing Under Pierre Trudeau, India and Canada’s relationship majorly suffered again after the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182. India had sought the extradition of Talwinder Singh Parmar in 1982, who reportedly fled to Canada after killing two police officers in Punjab a year before. However, the request was turned down by then-PM Pierre Trudeau. In June 1985, Air India flight 182, the Kanishka, flying from Canada to India was bombed by terrorists, leading to the death of 331 civilians, including 80 children. Parmar, the head of Babbar Khalsa, a Sikh militant organisation, was believed to have masterminded the bombing. The tragedy came at the peak of the Khalistan movement and was the worst act of aviation terrorism before 9/11 in the US. Parmar was killed by the police in Punjab in 1992. ALSO READ: Before Canada, there was US, Pakistan: How India handles big diplomatic face-offs As per Indian Express, Canadian journalist Terry Milewski mentioned in his 2021 book Blood for Blood: Fifty Years of the Global Khalistan Project that Canada’s response to the Khalistani extremism was rebuked by India, including Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1982. “The meek Canadian response to the Khalistani challenge was a frequent target of Indian politicians as far back as 1982, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi complained about it to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau,” Milewski wrote. While India contained the Khalistan movement by the end of the late 1990s, Canada is seen as a resort for pro-Khalistan supporters. Justin Trudeau is regarded as being “soft” on Khalistani separatists due to “political compulsions”. [caption id=“attachment_13158682” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Justin Trudeau looks at a poster of his late father, former Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau at a coffee shop in Quebec’s Sainte-Therese, in 2015. Reuters File Photo[/caption] Speaking to ThePrint, Professor Ummu Salma Bava from School of International Studies, JNU, said: “In 1990, Liberal Party leaders received the support of the World Sikh Organization (WSO) and the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) during a leadership race. So, it’s not new to see Canadian politicians pander to the Sikh diaspora". “But in the last 10 years, Sikh separatists have been given enough of a space in Canadian politics to influence domestic issues unlike in the UK where such elements have not been given that kind of political patronage to influence the political agenda,” she explained. While the junior Trudeau has said his country will push back against “hatred”, he also said he will defend “freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, and freedom of peaceful protest”. It remains to be seen how long it will take this time for India and Canada to repair the distraught diplomatic relations. With inputs from agencies