The move follows a public statement by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that he had credible allegations linking Indian agents to the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh Khalistani activist and Canadian citizen who was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Surrey, B. C. , in June. .
A sense of “apprehension” about additional measures that could be taken if tensions escalate, as Chauhan described to CBC News, has spread to India’s tourism industry, especially now that the pause comes at the start of India’s peak tourism season, which lasts from October to March, when weather is cooler across the country.
“We are going through a very difficult time,” said Chandar Bhan, 38. This professional engine caters mainly to Canadian tourists, and in peak season, it conducts up to 15 tours in total from Canadians.
“Overall, I would have done 4 or five seconds by now, but it’s October and I haven’t done a single one yet,” he said.
“There’s no work. “
Canada is among the top five countries sending tourists to India, with more than 277,000 Canadians visiting the country in 2022, up from 80,000 in 2021, influenced by the pandemic, according to India’s Ministry of Tourism.
For those who specialize in travel from Canadian cities to India’s tourist hotspots, the days following the India visa announcement were particularly stressful.
“It was devastating. Our phone started ringing and other people got scared,” said Nazir Karnai, president of Explore India Journeys, a Vancouver-based agency.
“It was actually hard to know what the next steps would be because we didn’t know how to respond,” Karnai said in an interview in New Delhi, where he had traveled to help with the travel of Canadians whose visas had been issued before the pause. in which the treatment had an effect.
According to Karnai, his company had booked more than 500 people to travel to India between October and March, but only 10% of them had visas in hand.
Most of the agency’s Canadian clients are retired and looking to cross a destination off their bucket list.
“They have stored every penny of their lives to achieve their dream of seeing the Taj Mahal, and now their dreams have been shattered because they can’t get visas,” Karnai said, adding that some “have paid tens of thousands of dollars. ” Non-refundable. “
The monetary blow was also devastating for Karnai, who said his company had lost between $4 million and $5 million due to canceled projects since the visa was announced.
“It’s been tricky for us,” he said, both financially and mentally, as he also works to calm his Canadian clients’ fears about the danger of traveling to India right now, given the high political animosity between the two countries.
“This is the scenario on the ground,” Karnai said.
The diplomatic row and uncertainty over how long the tensions will last also raise concerns about a potential impact on trade as Canada remains India’s largest supplier of red lentils, which are a must-have in Indian households.
Two Canadian lentil exporters told Reuters they fear Indian importers will be hesitant to end legume sales in the long term.
Data from India’s Ministry of Commerce shows that last year’s imports to India from Canada amounted to $370 million, accounting for more than a portion of the South Asian country’s total lentil imports. Indian imports of Canadian lentils from April to July this year rose to 420 consistently. penny through 2022.
The increase came as erratic weather and a lack of rain, adding up to the driest August in more than a century, affected India’s crop yields, mainly affecting pulses, whose prices have risen as much as 20 percent this year.
India grows its own lentils, but demand far outstrips production. Dal, which is the Indian word for lentils or any legume split, is a staple in Indian cuisine, and most foods are not complete without lentils.
In Bharti Jadhav’s house and in the kitchens of the families she cooks for, this is a constant.
“At least 250 grams of dal are used in each household,” he said. “And not just one type of dal, but all types. “
Jadhav, 30, added that even if costs were to rise due to uncertainty over imports, Indians would pay extra rupees to eliminate red lentils from their diet.
But the specter of a slowdown in lentil imports or possible retaliatory tariff measures is not a serious fear for some in the sector.
Bimal Kothari, president of the Pulses and Cereals Association of India, believes that the lentil advertising market is too gigantic, and as a price-driven industry, it may not suffer collateral damage due to emerging diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
Rising food prices are also a sensitive factor for the Indian government, especially in the run-up to the general election and this year’s already painful surge in staples such as lentils, onions and tomatoes.
Kothari CBC News that he “understands the fears that Canadian [lentil] exporters have in mind. “
“But I don’t think this political situation . . . has a big effect on the [lentil] industry unless it gets worse and worse,” he said.
“So we don’t know what can happen. “
Journalist
Salimah Shivji is CBC’s South Asia correspondent, founded in Mumbai. He has covered everything from natural errors and clashes to climate change and corruption in Canada and around the world during his nearly two decades at CBC.
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