Sanjay Kumar Verma, High Commissioner of India to Canada. File | Image source: Reuters
India’s envoy to Canada accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of undermining relations between the two countries, claiming he had nothing to do with the killing of Khalistani separatists and that the charges against him were “politically motivated”.
India recently expelled six Canadian diplomats and announced the withdrawal of its high commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, after rejecting Ottawa’s accusations that the envoy was linked to Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh. Charges related to investigation into the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
However, Canada said it had expelled six Indian diplomats.
Interviewed by a Canadian private broadcaster CCTV News In a program aired on Sunday (October 20, 2024), Verma said Trudeau’s accusations in Nijar’s killing were based on intelligence rather than concrete evidence.
“The problem is, by his own admission, when he made the accusation, there was no hard evidence. There was intelligence. On the basis of intelligence, if you want to destroy a relationship, that’s my guest. That’s what he (Mr. Trudeau) did Yes,” Mr. Verma said.
Trudeau acknowledged last week while testifying before a public inquiry into foreign interference in the federal electoral process and democratic institutions that he had only intelligence and no “hard evidence” when he accused Indian government agents of involvement in Nijar’s killing.
“There is nothing. (Canada) has not provided any evidence. (It is) politically motivated,” the outgoing Indian envoy said when asked by the moderator whether he had anything to do with Nijar’s killing.
Nijar, who was declared a terrorist by India, was shot dead outside a monastery in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18 last year.
The Indian diplomat said Canada did not follow what it should have done.
“The evidence should have been shared first, but someone decided to stand in Parliament and talk about something that he himself said had ‘no hard evidence,'” he said, referring to Trudeau’s speech to the Canadian Parliament last September. He accused Indian government agents of involvement in Nijar’s killing.
“The day he did that, he ensured that the bilateral relationship with India would only take a turn for the worse, a downward spiral,” the diplomat said.
Relations between the two countries have been severely strained since Trudeau accused Indian agents of “possibly” being involved in Nijar’s killing last September.
New Delhi rejected Mr. Trudeau’s accusation is “ridiculous.”
India has maintained that the main issue between the two countries is the space Canada provides to pro-Khalistan elements operating with impunity within Canada.
India has strongly rejected attempts by Canadian authorities to link Indian agents to Canadian crime syndicates, with official sources in New Delhi even saying that Ottawa’s claims about sharing evidence with New Delhi in the Nijar case were simply untrue.
Published – October 21, 2024 02:07 AM (US Standard Time)
