India suspends ‘all categories’ of visas for Canada citizens amid diplomatic row

MicroWave@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.world – 539 points –
India suspends ‘all categories’ of visas for Canada citizens amid diplomatic row
independent.co.uk

Indian foreign ministry claims ‘security threats’ after Trudeau’s explosive allegation of state-sponsored killing mean it cannot provide visa services safely

India says it is indefinitely suspending visa services in all categories for all Canadian nationals due to “security threats” to its consulates, amid a furious diplomatic row between the two countries.

Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said they have suspended “all categories” of visas, including e-visas and for Canadian citizens applying from third countries.

And India has also moved to downsize the Canadian diplomatic presence in New Delhi, saying that Canada has more embassy workers in its capital than visa versa and that it wants to restore “parity”.

It comes after Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” of the Indian state’s involvement in the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, triggering a furious tit-for-tat row.

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So pathetic from India - seeking to punish Canada for the fact that the Indian government murdered a Canadian in Canada, and Canada had the temerity to call them out for it.

What an absurd victim complex Modi has.

Typical conservative snowflake. How dare you say anything about me? Throwing people in prison for criticism is commonplace in India.

It's sadly not uncommon among Brahmins. "How can these people we literally enslaved for millennia DARE want to convert to a different religion? Why aren't they more grateful?"

"Canada and its growing reputation as a safe haven for terrorists, for extremists, and for organised crime. And I think that’s a country that needs to worry about its international reputation”

Never thought I'd read a statement like that from someone who was serious.

Indian with it's assassins and cult government...

In fairness to Modi, Canada is already well known as a haven to clean dirty money.

For the moron downvoters. I can be a proud Canadian and still admit we have a problem.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/canada-is-a-haven-for-financial-crime-that-must-be-stopped/article_dfd61d8f-0dcc-564d-afe9-3a440c7fa792.html

https://youtu.be/_6sqfyxPgFo?si=7idNnylMLVKLSsY_

Not sure why this is getting downvoted, the Canadian housing market has been the place to park foreign money for years. Is one of the main reasons why Vancouver is so expensive. You can correlate the price of housing in BC to Xi's crackdowns, Brexit, or MBS taking over in Saudi. Also true for BTC.

Send some goofball nephew from China/India/Russia/etc. to school at Simon Frasier or whatever D-tier local school is in Richmond BC so that the proiperty is occupied, then take a reverse mortgage out against that and buy more property. Funnel money through said nephew to pay off the mortgage, then rent out the other properties. Or create shell companies in BC, have them cut deals with foreign companies, fail to deliver, lose a court case, and then have the court rulings sent to the BC company tax free since settlements aren't taxed.

Generally true in the GTA, and the big Alberta cities to lesser extents.

Having worked in corporate finance for years, anecdotally it was always explained that with China as an example people would purchase real estate because it was the hardest thing for the CCP to claw back once the money left China. If the CCP wants what you own, they will take it. They can't easily take back 100 apartments in downtown Surrey.

Way to make everybody believe your government did actually murder somebody in Canada, Modi.

The Modi govt has surpassed its own stupidity . They've officially labeled Canada an international terrorist sanctuary — “a safe haven for terrorists, for extremists, and for organized crime,” in the words of the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson. I've just posted on this zine

Sometime i think Modi studied from the same school where Xi Jinping and putin pass out.

Modi doesn’t have any college degree even though he claims so but refuses to share college certificate so far.

Ok so basically he's a Republican

That's the trick, cap. They always are.

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Its funny coz I think Modi thinks people are dying to visit India.🤣🤣 its like Taliban thinking Afghanistan is the most developed country in the world.🤣🤣🤣

India is that one country I can't imagine visiting as a tourist. I know there's plenty of beauty in the country and people, but I couldn't imagine enjoying myself as I step over human beings and try to ignore all the crippling poverty and social inequality.

Indian here. You should know the holiness of a place here is proportional to the amounth of filth around it /s. And dont visit Ganges plains. South is fine and so is Himalaya and north east. Avoid the cow belt.

Modi likes to pose macho especially when his followers like it. A bit of like Elon Musk if you ask me. He never said a thing about Chinese trangession in North East where we lost land. But he found soft targets in Canadians.

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Enjoy a sunset paddleboat ride down the Ganges, just nudge the floating corpses out the way.

You joke but a friend went there, and he showed me literal pictures of floating corpses in the ganges

Don't know if you have ever visited the US, but I was not expecting what we found. Worst was the constant begging. People tapping on the windows of the car when we stopped at intersections, chasing us around shopping centres and along streets, and begging on train stations, expecting "tips" for returning a bag they had stolen out of my hand (sometimes, jetlag didn't help me be fast enough) or "tips" for giving directions I didn't want, need, or ask for. They constantly expected money to be handed to them.

It was shocking how the roads were broken, the shops had no electronic payment, the coins were worth practically nothing, the paper money was literally paper scrip and not holographic or durable, and the buildings were rotting apart. People were dying on the footpaths. Crowds of dirty people. Rubbish everywhere. But worst was the begging.

Oddly, Canada isn't like that. If you ever visited the US, India is similar, but not unexpected the way the US is.

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Yeah for real, there are few countries I never ever want to visit, India is one of them

As they should, India is an amazing and very unique country

Why on Earth am I being downvoted. You guys need to leave your basement once in a while

Most westerners would not be able to handle India. While yes its full of rich history and culture, the state of cities would be too much for most first worlders to handle.

I went to Goa and Mumbai. So maybe not the densest populated places but still. I'm from Sweden. Sure the population density takes some getting used to but if you allow yourself to do that it's not like it's an alien place. Great food.

Also, I'm definitely spending money and my PTO for what's going to be quite an unpleasant experience. There are many places that are beautiful and culture rich as well without as much unpleasantness.

I don't know what PTO is but you can spend it on what you want. I'm not sure what unpleasantness you mean. There's poverty for sure, especially in big cities. What didn't you like in India ? if you don't mind sharing your experience

Yea, you need some time to adjust,... it's obligatory. But I think roaming the cities is amazing (from the perspective of a european). One just has to agree on dropping some habits and learning new ones. Travelling, basically

I didn't downvote, but nothing is "very unique" for the same reason that nobody is "very pregnant".

Either it is unique or it is not.

I disagree.

"Very" unique indicates being unique in more ways and/or in more severe ways.

Similarly, being "very pregnant" would be at about eight months or perhaps carrying more than one child. In the present of someone that is a month pregnant, it may hardly impact their day to day living, and you can't tell.

Yes, technically the words are Boolean, but the reality makes sense.

"Very" unique indicates being unique in more ways and/or in more severe ways.

The term you're looking for is "very unusual".

Similarly, being "very pregnant"

LOL, ok now say to a pregnant woman, "I don't think you're very pregnant". Please report back to us with her response.

Perhaps you haven't heard or read those before, but they're very much valid (😉). The downvotes are overwhelming and can't possibly -imho- reflect disagreement over my wording. I'm pretty sure it has to do with India, but I don't know why. Is there a particular anti-India sentiment I didn't know about ?

Well, there is definitely an anti-assassination sentiment. Probably why Saudi Arabia doesn't get much love either.

India is fuckin incredible, what makes you think anyone is lining up to visit Canada?

Students. Higher education in India is incredibly bad. Thousands of Indians pay huge sums to get into Canadian unis.

Higher education in India is incredibly bad.

Imma be level with you homie, the only Indians who leave to Canada for higher education are the ones who did not make it into the top universities in India.

India has some of the highest ranked universities in the world. It's a country famous for putting out doctors. Yes, there are issues with higher ed, but it's not as simple as "incredibly bad". And don't forget that a large number of foreign students is also a product of just having a large population.

India has some of the highest ranked universities in the world.

Whose capacity is close to nothing for the population. Indian universities fall in two categories: really good ones or absolute shit ones (source: I'm an Indian). There is no middle category. To get into the really good ones, you have to either have an exceptionally good academic performance or have to be extremely rich. Universities outside India fill in the demand of this middle category. Sprinkle in some permanent emigration aspirations and you get a country with a large emigrating student population.

It’s a country famous for putting out doctors.

While it is true that this is the perception of India especially in the west, it is categorically untrue. According to the World Health Organization (2023), India ranks very low in the amount of doctors per 10,000 people relative to developed countries (by more than 300%). If you counter this by saying "this is because all Indian doctors emigrate to the said developed countries", then that would be incorrect again, as around 10% of Indian physicians emigrate and practice in the west.

And don’t forget that a large number of foreign students is also a product of just having a large population.

I believe you are pinning "a large population" as the causal factor behind a high student emigrant population. Had this really been a causal factor, then we would've seen European and American students in Indian Universities proportional to their population (which when combined, makes up around half of India's population). The fact that we do not observe this phenomenon is evidence enough that "a large population" is not the causal factor behind this. Rather, it is the access to good education which plays a much much larger role.

There are enough incredible countries where you don’t have to worry about perverts and being raped as a woman.

Come to Singapore, we have the Indian culture (among others), and we're the diametric opposite of India where it comes to safety in all aspects. 😉

Brother at least put some effort into it.

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Wow who would have thought, India is winning the North Korea speed run challenge.

Russia already won first place. But man, I was cheering for India for a while but this last year they are having me lose a substantial amount of goodwill towards them even after trying to find excuses. I hope they check themselves before its too late.

Modi going full-bore with Kremlin tactics and methods emulating his pal, Putin.

He's destroying indias credibility on the world stage, this is really sad to see.

It's harmful to Indian citizens and Canadians as well

And it was so well respected before! No one saw it as the "scammer country", and certainly there wasn't a well known pocket of humor on the Internet entirely revolving around India and feces. No, no, they're universally known around the globe for their amazing

they’re universally known around the globe for their amazing

Their amazing what?! Corndogs? Churros? Eggrolls? You gotta tell us!

Canada, now you lol

That's what India wants....

They want to stop the brain drain their country is experiencing. If they outright forbid their citizens from emigrating, then they're obviously the bad guys.

If they can make other countries stop Indians from immigrating, the. It Stokes the "us against the world" sentiment that far authoritarian goverments need to stay in power.

The absolute worst thing any country can do to India, is open up for refugees from there. People would be throwing out their Indian citizenship left and right

Canada is hurting right now by taking in so many immigrants, primarily from India. Many companies are using it to suppress wages. Its causing huge strain on housing were kids today will not own a home without assistance from a family member. Its baffling the amount of immigrants Canada is bringing in.

You need those immigrants to work the low wages you won't. The problem is all the frderal governments that have stopped building social housing twenty years ago. A deficit of millions of low cost units is there problem, not new people in the country.

Blame your concerned conservative and liberal leaders for the last twenty years, not the brown skinned guy trying to feed his kids.

You need those immigrants to work the low wages you won't

Or, to put it another way: shitty corps and their govt lackeys need those pliable immigrants to work for the underpaid and abusive jobs that Canadians won't, rather than fixing the pay and working conditions

Blame your concerned conservative and liberal leaders for the last twenty years, not the brown skinned guy trying to feed his kids.

Am I crazy or is that not exactly what the comment you replied to did? I didn't see any racism or blame against Indians, it was entirely blaming the Canadian government for their immigration policies. I don't know that I agree with the OP you replied to, but we should be able to have this conversation without devolving into "well you're racist"

You need those immigrants to work the low wages you won't.

I'd be interested to see some stats on average wages of Indian immigrants if you have any. There are a ton of Indians in my industry (tech) and they are very skilled and make very good wages. Imo they're a valuable asset to my industry and I don't believe they bring the average salaries down, but I don't agree with the mindset that every immigrant is working at Tim Hortons or something.

While this thread is about India, immigrants come from all over the world. Some work IT, some work health care, many work the service industry, many drive trucks, many clean buildings, many work on farms, and so on.

Yes, this thread is about India, hence why I said:

I'd be interested to see some stats on average wages of Indian immigrants if you have any

Your response is goalpost moving and hand wavy.

The problem is that bringing in TFW’s to work at Tim Hortons allows the shitty food chain to keep their wages artificially low.

So stop shopping there, don't support the bullshit. Start talking to the workers about unionizing.

Rich people are fucking you over. They'll do whatever they can get away with. And they're successfully convincing people that people that don't look like you are the problem.

Don't kid yourself, they can raise wages plety without affecting the price of your coffee, but they won't touch their profit margin so the extra cost gets passed to the consumer.

Agreed.

And I don’t. Haven’t been to Tim Hortons more than twice in the last 6 years.

I’m with you.

Totally agree with the sentiment, but if I were to boycott everything I disagree with I'd be a hermit living in the woods... actually that doesn't sound terrible

Gee if no one is working for those low wages, the solution is for wages to rise not to bring in more workers to sustain poverty wages.

You'd think so, but the people that own the land and equipment also spend money on politicians that keep that kind of policy from passing into law.

They're not working low wage jobs. These are decent paying middle income jobs that's driving many 3rd and greater generation Canadians to lose any socioeconomic status within their own country. The Canadian government is hollowing out the middle class in favor of immigration who are taking these well paying jobs to suppress wages so its cheaper to produce the goods and services. Offshoring didn't work out well so they brought the offshore to Canada and its a pretty serious issue that has caused a generation of Canadians to experience very hard times

Its driving more Canadians into low wage jobs though and increasing pressure there.

We'll fix our problems when we realize it's supposed to be class warfare, not racism.

The people trying to feed the kids are not the source of our problems, it's the white people who made government policies that are fucking everyone who isn't rich.

That's a rich comment coming from someone who immediately assumed that brown foreign people must be low wage workers.

Please provide a link of me making a claim like you suggest. If someone here is making immediate assumptions, it's not me. I suggest that you have misinterpreted my words.

We need immigrants because there is not enough people to fill jobs.

It's not just jobs, Canada is extremely underpopulated for its size. There's literally more people in the state of California than all of Canada.

Canada has a higher population than California.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2018005-eng.htm

The majority of Canada isn't populated due to extreme climate and miminal arable lands.

There's people living in the artics and tundras of Canada. As far as arable land, you actually think the world's second largest country by mass isn't arable?

As far as population you are right though, their population did just recently surpass California.

Weird since we have a ton of people with student debt and no jobs

Unemployment is at all time lows across Canada. Fuck off.

I’m not saying you’re wrong but I’d love to know why there are so many more homeless people and intersection beggars in my city than I’ve seen in almost 40 years, if that’s true.

This wasn’t meant to be related to the post we are commenting on, just a casual observation/question.

Edit: I ask a question and get downvotes. You people are fucking hopeless.

Unemployment and homelessness are not related.

The majority of Canada's homeless population also work. The majority of Canada's homeless population only spends a few months homeless.

The last 40 years you say?

(this is the US but we're heavily influenced by them. I doubt ours is any different)

Canada is hurting right now by taking in so many immigrants, primarily from India.

Canada, without immigration, has a replacement of 1.4. This means that for every 2 Canadian adults only 1.4 are produced. This is a NEGATIVE replacement rate. A rate of 2.1 is consider minimum viable.

Its baffling the amount of immigrants Canada is bringing in.

It really isn't.

Without immigrants Canada would eventually cease to have a population and disappear as a nation.

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India seems to be one of their biggest sources of immigrants. Looks like they hoover up tech workers.

Likely works in Canada's favour to not do the same.

India is the world’s biggest source of immigrants.

It's got 1/8 (well 3/16) of the population. Not surprising.

what is the difference between expats and immigrants?

There is none. Expats are immigrants that don't like to be associated with immigrants from poorer countries.

Not sure if this is a serious question or not.

There is no difference between an expat and an immigrant. It's a term white people like to use to avoid calling themselves immigrants, because in their mind that's a term reserved for brown people..

Edit: I am a white btw

Expats are what white people call themselves because they think "immigrants" sounds low class. There is no difference. You mostly see it from American and Western Europeans when they move abroad.

@Neato @MicroWave @Touching_Grass @Lmaydev @Art3sian @ruford1976 (paraphrasing a tweet from years ago here) White people also coined the term “microdosing” because “taking drugs” sounds a bit too scummy.

microdosing [ˈmīkrōˌdōsiNG] NOUN

the action or practice of taking or administering very small amounts of a drug in order to test or benefit from its physiological action while minimizing undesirable side effects:
"microdosing would allow tiny amounts of new drugs to be safely given to human volunteers"

It's a method currently being used to test very small doses of psychedelics, to see the effects on mental disorders.

You have a bunch of wrong answers.

Expats intend to go back to their home country after some time.

Immigrants intend to stay at their destination country.

Granted the term is misused by white people who want to call themselves expats instead of calling themselves immigrants.

An expat is a person who resides abroad for work for a fixed period and intents to move back home once their contract has ended. However the term expats is used by high educated immigrants who don’t want to be called immigrants especially white people.

Immigrants intend to become citizens of their new country. Expats work there under temporary residence conditions and return home or to their next posting when done.

Expats move to where cost of living is cheaper so they can retire early.

Immigrants move to where it's higher in search of jobs.

People argue it's the same thing so they should be called the same thing, but if it's for two different reasons, it makes sense there's two different words for it.

There's no difference. Both are moving elsewhere (immigrating) to increase their quality of life.

If you strip the context to its most basic form then yeah they’re both moving somewhere to nebulously increase their quality of life. Much like elevators and stairs are the same thing because they’re infrastructure that allows you to reach floors in a building that aren’t ground level.

I don't agree with that comparison. Expats and immigrants are doing the same thing. For different reasons sure, but the way they do it is the about the same. Imo people like to call themselves expats because they don't wanna be associated with other immigrants.

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Green cards (permanent resident card) in the US are processed in queues. The queues are based on your country of birth. Last I checked Chinas queue time is around 5 years whereas Indias is around 10 years.

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Is India such a popular destination for Canadians ? I mean who is hurt more in this "he`s done it, so i pay back" game?

Something like 7% of Canada's population is South Asian. I don't know what percentage of that has Canadian citizenship and is specifically from India, but I'd guess there are a fair number of people who won't be able to visit family now. It's a shitty way to retaliate, but not unsurprising coming from Modi.

Well those who come from India they don't need visa and second generation of original immigrants might not have such a tight relations on average as they have lived whole life in Canada. Then how many Canadians work in India in comparison to how many Indians work in Canada. I'm just guessing here but somehow I think Indians are hurting their own people. If it's about tourism , then again who needs tourism more if we count only tourists from these two countries visiting each other.

Interesting. I do passport applications (granted, in the US, so not completely the same), but I see a fair amount of 2nd gen Indians who are going to India. Lots of people going for weddings or young adults visiting grandparents or taking their own babies to meet the extended family. Regardless, it's super petty.

they hurt their own people in sense not Canadians in general. (Graparents won't see their grandchildren etc)

I doubt there are many Canadians who go there for leisure, but for work? I bet there's quite a few of them.

Do you think more Canadians work in India or vice versa? I don't know but somehow I get feeling Indians like working for higher $$$ in the west then Canadians in the India.

it ain't the white ones who are going, it's the 2nd generation (or later) Indians in Canada who may have issues. "with us or against us, pick a side, otherwise you're not going to visit Grandma"

I've followed the headlines on this but I just don't get it.

India is pissed they were called out? They didn't consider a cranky Canadian outcome before hand? Or is Canada flinging wild accusations that are unjustified with the information at hand?

These diplomats need to chillax and go back to being diplomatic before legitimate Canadian expats in India and legitimate Indian expats in Canada start to feel the brunt of this.

There is strong evidence that hasn't been released but leaked sources claim one of the two killers(captured) have ties to Indian Intelligence the other being an Indian diplomat(uncaptured). This means it's a direct attack on a Canadian on Canadian soil by a foreign agent.

India is pissed because Canada harbored an alleged terrorist. Even though the terrorist in question was freed by the Indian government and was not wanted by Interpol.

The Indian government is currently genociding its Sikh population and calls anyone outspoken about these actions as terrorist.

This action of closing immigration from Canada is to get an equal reaction. India want to stop all of their skilled and intelligent people from leaving to Canada.

The Indian government is currently genociding its Sikh population

Uhhhhhh what?

Rest of your comment is fine but there's no need for falsehoods like these.

Canada seems to have pretty credible evidence for it. India seems to be doubling down in indignation rather than apologize or admit they did anything wrong.

The documentary "India's Daughter" enlightened me to the actual India.

Aww india is hurt and throwing a tantrum like a 5 yr old :D

The thing with indians is they are probably being brain washed by russia.

India doesn't need to be brainwashed by Russia. India brainwashes itself. In the World Press Freedom Index (2023), out of 180 countries, India ranks 161 while Russia ranks 164. Unfortunately, India's rank has been dropping rapidly here. In 2021 for instance, the country ranked at 142. India is not the "free, democratic counterweight to China" that the west thinks it to be.

It's over the top outrage to somehow try to deflect from that they probably did assassinate someone in Canada.

It's so obvious they're trying to sway and pressure Canada to drop this and not investigate it.

Given that Canada and the US are close allies, it seems bizarre that Modi would risk a diplomatic feud in North America, when India often tops the tables in terms of visa sponsorship in many western countries.

It's horrible that I need to say this, but I have nothing against immigration, and frankly, I think it should be more commonplace between countries - but risking these ties could result in actions being taken against the thousands of people that build a career around emigrating to other countries in the West.