New Delhi: Sanjay Kumar Verma, India’s high commissioner to Canada who was recently expelled, said that while trade relations may remain unaffected, political ties have been damaged, and India must now decide whether to send his replacement amidst persistent “mistrust.”
Last week, India announced that Canada has informed that the Indian envoy and other Indian diplomats were “persons of interest” for investigation related to alleged targeted campaigns against Canadian citizens. Soon after, the India’s Ministry of External Affairs summoned Canada’s acting high commissioner to protest and announced the withdrawal of six Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner.
Even as India withdrew its diplomats and expelled six Canadian diplomats, Ottawa announced it had already issued “notices of expulsion” to six Indian diplomatic and consular officials.
The latest nadir in India-Canada relations took place a little more than a year after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood up in the Canadian parliament to accuse India of being involved in the shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen who was proscribed as a Khalistani terrorist by New Delhi.
In an interview aired by Canadian television channel CTV News, Varma said that decision by India on whether to replace him and his expelled colleagues would involve a “discussion” between the two governments.
“That is a discussion we will have with the Canadian side largely given the mistrust that we have on Mr Trudeau and his team. We have concerns and we will discuss it very carefully with them. Our security and safety are concerned. So there are so many things,” he said.
He also said that trade relationship would not be impacted, just as Canadian trade minister Mary Ng anticipates. “people to people, relationship, trade relationship, cultural relationship….science and technology, you know, education, those relationships have got nothing to do with it. So there will be emotions which may impact a few of those deals. But larger picture is that I don’t see much impact on non-political bilateral relations,” stated Verma.
He reiterated multiple times that Canada’s accusation – both by Trudeau and Canadian police – were politically motivated.
In his testimony before the Foreign Interference Commission, Trudeau had said “at the point” of the initial conversation with India before going public with the allegations, Canada had primary intelligence and not hard evidentiary proof.
Referring to these remarks, Varma said, “On the basis on the basis of intelligence if you want to destroy a relationship, be my guest”.
Claiming that Khalistani terrorists “were encouraged” by Canada, Verma asserted, “I also know that some of these Khalistani extremists and terrorists are deep assets of CSIS”. He added that he was saying this as this is “what is understood by the Canadian politicians that someone stands on the floor of the parliament says something which he later says I didn’t have any hard evidence and that was taken as biblical truth”.
The Canadian news anchor noted that the Indian diplomat was criticising the Prime Minister Trudeau.
Verma reiterated that India had given 27 dossiers to Canada for the extradition of pro-Khalistani Canadians, on which no action has taken place. When the interviewer pointed out that Canadians will not accept that as justification for extrajudicial murder, he said, “It should not happen anywhere in the world. I know the countries which have done it and some of them are G7 countries by the way. So let’s not talk about it. There should not be double standards. So as far as we are concerned, the largest democracy in the world, we are committed not to do extra judicial killings on any territory, leave foreign countries”.
‘Diversion tactic,’ says Canadian high commissioner
CTV also aired an interview with Cameron Mackay, Canada’s high commissioner to India who was expelled, who said that Ottawa was working on the dossiers had had sought moore information on 26 out of the 27 files.
“In the past, where India has shared sufficient information, we have successfully extradited people from Canada to face law,” Mackay said. “It’s a diversion tactic to claim that Canada has been uncooperative in these law enforcement matters,” adding, “I consider it to be simply not true.”
Mackay had also claimed that the US allegations, outlined in two indictments, and Canada’s accusations, reflected a “single plot”. A day after the tit-for-tat expulsion, US prosecutors, who charged former RAW operative Vikash Yadav with attempting to kill a US citizen, further claimed that the Indian suspects had knowledge about Nijjar’s shooting.
Verma refuted this notion, saying, “These are two different countries, two different crimes taking place, the place of crime are different”.
He also asserted that an “indictment is not a conviction”. “And therefore logically, it will follow its judicial process and we are fine with that. So much so, that we ourselves formed a committee, high level committee to help the Americans in this”.
