India-Canada clash should be a wake-up call for countries that are home to diaspora communities

TO MOST of the world, the Indian government’s response to Canada’s charge that it may have sponsored the murder of a Sikh activist in British Columbia must be befuddling. India has strenuously denied the charges, for which Canada has provided no evidence publicly yet.

But the Indian government has also gone further and blasted Canada for supposedly hosting a “nexus of terrorism”, serving as a “safe haven” for extremism and organised crime, and much else.

Indian investigators have even released a list of what they call “terror-gangster networks” based in Canada. This is all absurdly detached from Canada’s popular image as a polite and welcoming multicultural utopia.