New Delhi: Amid the ongoing diplomatic row between India and Canada, opposition parties, including the Congress and the CPI(M), have urged the ruling BJP-led Union government to take them into its confidence in the national interest.
In a statement on Monday (October 14), Congress MP and general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said that his party hoped that the Narendra Modi government would take the leader of the opposition and other political parties into confidence in both houses of parliament “on the extremely sensitive and delicate issue of worsening India-Canada relations”.
The Indian National Congress certainly hopes and expects that Prime Minister @narendramodi will take the Leader of Opposition in both Houses of Parliament, and the leaders of other political parties into confidence immediately on the extremely sensitive and delicate issue of…
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) October 14, 2024
Relations between India and Canada touched a new low after Ottawa’s allegations that Indian government agents were involved in killing a pro-Khalistan activist in Canada in 2023. India and Canada on Monday expelled six of each other’s diplomats, including their top envoys, amid an unprecedented escalation of the diplomatic row.
The Canadian government had a few days ago named Indian high commissioner to Canada Sanjay Verma and other diplomats as ‘persons of interest’. They were subsequently expelled after India refused to waive their diplomatic immunity and cooperate with the Canadian authorities’ probe into a “targeted campaign against Canadian citizens” by Indian government agents.
Canada’s Five Eyes allies, the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand, have also since reacted to the allegations and called them “extremely serious”.
TMC MP in the Rajya Sabha Sagarika Ghose said that “any other government would have fallen” if faced with such allegations.
“The head of another government and its police publicly accuse the Modi-led government of shocking criminal activity on its soil, and no one is supposed to ask for answers from the non-biological PM,” she said on Wednesday in reference to the the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s statement Monday that Indian government agents were involved in criminal activities in Canada.
The head of another government and its police publicly accuse the Modi-led government of shocking criminal activity on its soil, and no one is supposed to ask for answers from the non-biological PM @narendramodi ? Why is @JustinTrudeau making these accusations? Why have India…
Advertisement— Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) October 16, 2024
“Why have India-Canada relations been blown up? What is Lawrence Bishnoi’s role? A supine cowardly Indian media will keep trumpeting loyalty, but any other government would have fallen under these explosive revelations,” she wrote on X.
The CPI(M) in a statement said that Canada’s allegations have been a matter of “serious concern” and have a “direct impact on national security”.
It said that the “Government of India is duty-bound to protect the national interest for which it has support across political parties in India. The allegations levied by various official authorities of the Canadian government against India have been rejected by the Government of India.”
“It is to be expected that the Government of India will take the opposition parties into confidence on these issues including the allegation made about the role of the Lawrence Bishnoi criminal gang,” it added.
