Amid the India-Canada row over Justin Trudeau accusing India of murdering Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Canada is shifting a majority of its diplomates to Kula Lumpur or Singapore, Canadian media CTV News said.Earlier, India asked Canada to move 41 of its diplomats out of India to bring uniformity between the number of diplomats each country has posted in the other.The external affairs ministry earlier accused Canadian diplomats of intervening in Indias internal affairs and said they are far more in numbers compared to India has in Canada.As per the reports, New Delhi asked Ottawa to make this shift till October 10, but CTV reported that the majority of the Canadian diplomats in India outside Delhi have been shifted to either Kuala Lumpur or Singapore.Withdrawal to impact visa to IndiansThe call of India to reduce Canadian diplomats from India was another diplomatic blow in the India-Canada relations. On the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, India told Canada that target killing is not the policy of India and that if Canada has some specific intelligence regarding the accusation, it should be provided to New Delhi.However, Canada shared the sensitive information with New Delhi weeks ago, which India rejected politely.On the reduction of Canadian diplomats, EAM spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday that the aim is to seek equality in the respective diplomatic presence in the country. He said, “Given that Canadian diplomatic presence is higher, we would assume that there would be a reduction”.Number of Diplomates in India-CanadaKP Fabian, a former Indian diplomat told ANI that India has 21 diplomats in Canada while Canada has 62 diplomats in India. Hence the extra 41 needed to be withdrawn. Otherwise, they will be declared persona non grata.
