Ottawa/New Delhi, Feb 24 (.) Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is set to visit India starting Friday, will significantly skip a visit to Punjab, in a break from past such visits by Canadian PMs, and in what is being seen as a move to distance his government from pro-Khalistani elements that had created fissures in ties with India in the past.
PM Carney’s first trip to India will include stops in Mumbai and New Delhi, but no visit to Punjab, a major source of immigration to Canada. His office said in a statement that he is heading to Mumbai, where he will meet with business leaders, and New Delhi, for a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
PM Carney will be in India seeking new investment and export markets for Canada as Ottawa tries to reduce its economic reliance on an increasingly protectionist United States.
Prime Minister Carney’s two predecessors, Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper, had visited Punjab. Carney avoiding a visit to Punjab suggests that his government would like to avoid antagonizing its Indian hosts, whose opposition to separatists trying to turn Punjab into an independent Sikh homeland has been a past source of tension between the countries, the Globe and Mail reported.
Both Trudeau and Harper visited Punjab and the Golden Temple in Amritsar during their official trips to India – Harper in 2009 and Trudeau in 2018. Harper returned to Punjab during his 2012 visit as well, touring the Sikh Heritage Centre among other locations. During that second trip, he also visited a Hindu shrine in India.
Visiting the Golden Temple has been widely viewed as a symbolic gesture toward Canada’s large Sikh community, a group that has played a significant role in Canadian politics. Three of the previous four prime ministers made the trip. Jean Chrétien visited the temple in 2003 when he was prime minister. Paul Martin, who followed Chrétien as PM, did not.
In recent decades, the pro-Khalistani activities of some Sikhs in Canada created a major rift in relations between Ottawa and New Delhi. India has long complained that Canada provides a haven for Khalistani elements.
In 2023, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an Indo-Canadian Khalistani activist, was murdered in Surrey, B.C., and then PM Trudeau accused the Indian government of a role in the killing, without showing any tangible proof. Despite New Delhi stoutly denying having any role in Nijjar’s killing, Trudeau persisted in levelling accusations, leading bilateral relations to plunge to low levels. Four Indian nationals now face charges in the Nijjar case.
During his 2018 visit, then PM Trudeau had invited Jaspal Atwal, a former member of a banned Sikh separatist group convicted of an attempted assassination in 1986, to an official dinner in Delhi. Though the invitation was rescinded, the photo of Atwal with Trudeau’s wife Sophie, went viral and caused a strain in ties.
Asked about the absence of a Punjab stop, the Canadian Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) press secretary Laura Scaffidi said in a statement that Carney will travel to Mumbai and New Delhi to “focus on expanding economic and business relationships, identify investment opportunities in Canada, and create new partnerships between businesses in both nations.” Scaffidi said cultural outreach will take place at home.
“When he is in Canada, the Prime Minister will continue his engagements with cultural communities including attending important celebrations and events on days of significance.” Carney attended Vaisakhi celebrations with the Sikh community last April in Ottawa, for instance, she said.
Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, said he’s in favour of the Carney itinerary for India. “This is a serious time and warrants a serious visit. Prime Minister Carney is right not to get distracted by diaspora political events,” said Hyder, who is an Indo-Canadian.
After Mumbai, where he will talk with business leaders, Prime Minister Carney will head to New Delhi to meet with his Indian counterpart. The two will discuss “ambitious new partnerships in trade, energy, technology and artificial intelligence (AI), talent and culture, and defence,” the Canadian PMO said in a separate statement.
Carney will also meet business leaders in New Delhi.
Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, said she takes Carney’s itinerary as a sign that his foreign policy is “more focused on national interest and not limited to certain diaspora priorities.”
Balpreet Singh, legal counsel for the Ottawa-based World Sikh Organization, said his organization has been unable to procure a meeting with Gary Anandasangaree, the current Public Safety Minister. “The doors have been shut to us,” Singh said.
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