External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal criticized Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegation of extortion, murder and violence by New Delhi. File | Photo: The Hindu
Foreign Office spokesman Randhir Jaiswal blasted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday (17 October 2024) as a “cavalier” for his handling of the disastrous diplomatic fallout after Killing of a Sikh separatist in Canada in 2023.
New Delhi has maintained a staunchly defiant stance toward Ottawa, an approach that stands in stark contrast to its condescending attitude this week toward the United States, where India has also been accused of masterminding a separate assassination plot.
Canada claims India masterminded the killing of a Sikh separatistnaturalized Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijar, killed in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver in June 2023. India called the allegations “absurd”.
Mr Jaiswal said on Thursday (October 17, 2024) that they had not seen that evidence.
“Canada has not presented us (India) with any evidence to support the serious allegations it has chosen to make against India and Indian diplomats,” he said in a statement.
“The responsibility for the damage this cavalier behavior has caused to India-Canada relations rests solely with Prime Minister Trudeau.
But Mr. Trudeau told a parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday (Oct. 16, 2024) that Canada has “clear … indications that India has violated Canadian sovereignty.”
Canada’s top envoy in New Delhi, Stuart Wheeler, who was ordered by India to leave by Saturday (October 19, 2024) evening, said Ottawa had provided “credible, irrefutable evidence of links between agents of the Indian government and the killing of Canadian citizen”.
A grain for a tooth
Nijar, who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015, advocated for a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan, carved out of India.
He was wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder. Four Indian nationals have been arrested in connection with Nijar’s murder.
Last year, the government briefly restricted visas for Canadians, and this week the two countries expelled each other’s ambassadors.
New Delhi’s response to Washington was very different, with the US State Department on Wednesday (Oct 16, 2024) saying that India had told it that an intelligence agent accused of leading an assassination plot on US soil was no longer is in government service.
US prosecutors indicted an Indian national last November in a foiled attempt in New York to kill a defender of a separate Sikh homeland.
The indictment describes an “Indian government employee,” who has not been publicly named, as recruiting the killer and directing the assassination plot from a distance, including arranging the delivery of $15,000 in cash.
An Indian daily, citing an unnamed US official, said on Monday (Oct 14, 2024) that India had not only suspended but also arrested the official on “domestic charges”.
The State Department did not confirm the arrest.
Published – October 17, 2024, 11:07 AM IST
