India appoints Dinesh Patnaik as next High Commissioner to Canada

India on Thursday announced that Dinesh K. Patnaik, presently Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain, has been appointed as the next High Commissioner to Canada. According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Patnaik, a career diplomat belonging to the 1990 batch of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), is expected to take up the assignment shortly. The appointment comes more than 10 months after New Delhi had withdrawn its previous High Commissioner to Ottawa over the then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s continued “hostility” towards India. Citing the atmosphere of extremism and violence that had prevailed during Trudeau’s tenure, India had withdrawn High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma, one of the country’s senior most serving diplomats, in October 2014. The ties between India and Canada had soured after Trudeau alleged in the Canadian Parliament that he had “credible allegations” of India’s hand in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. A major diplomatic row had erupted when Canada labelled India’s High Commissioner and other diplomats as “persons of interest” in the investigation of Nijjar’s death. India denied all the allegations, calling them “absurd” and “motivated”, accusing Ottawa of giving space to extremist and anti-India elements in the country. “We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targetted diplomats and officials. It was also conveyed that India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau Government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India,” the MEA had had stated after summoning the Canadian Charge d’Affaires in New Delhi on October 14 last year over the “baseless targeting” of the Indian diplomats and officials in Canada. (IANS)

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