India orders Canada to withdraw 41 diplomats, Financial Times reports

Canada and India have soared their foreign relations over Hardeep Singh Nijjar assasination
Justin Trudeau and Naredra Modi governemnts failed to solve deteriorating relations

New Delhi has requested Ottawa to withdraw 41 diplomats by October 10 due to deteriorating diplomatic relations between India and Canada, according to a Financial Times report on Tuesday.

Canada has 62 diplomats in India, and New Delhi has suggested a reduction of 41, according to the newspaper. However, the Indian and Canadian foreign ministries have not commented on the matter.

Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said late last month that New Delhi had “informed the Canadian government that there should be parity in strength and rank equivalence in our mutual diplomatic presence.”

“Their numbers here are very much higher than ours in Canada,” said Bagchi.

India and Canada relationship have deteriorated in recent weeks after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the assassination of Sikh independence activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Nijjar, 45, had been wanted by India for years and was gunned down outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C., on June 18.India has dismissed the allegation as absurd.