One of India’s most highly regarded former diplomats and one of the longest serving Permanent Representatives at the United Nations has said that the Canadian allegations, reported extensively by the Washington Post and New York Times, must be squashed by the government otherwise India’s prestige, honour and credibility will suffer.
Chinmaya Gharekhan said: “This story isn’t good for us and the government must make every effort and as early as possible to squash this story … India’s prestige, honour and credibility will otherwise suffer”.
In a 30-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Mr. Gharekhan, who served closely with Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, said the Foreign Minister should either write an article or give interviews to papers like the Washington Post and New York Times and not simply leave it to ambassadors to refute the story.
In the interview, Mr. Gharekhan accepted that one reason why India has issued a very strong statement against Canada, with personal accusations levelled against Prime Minister Trudeau, but responded much more discreetly and co-operatively in the case of the Pannun allegations raised by the United States, is because Canada is perceived to be weak whereas America is a powerful country and India needs to show co-operation with it.
In the interview, Mr. Gharekhan is questioned at length about several allegations reported by the Washington Post. First, that Indian diplomats in Canada were ferreting out information and details on Sikh extremists in Canada and passing them on to R&AW who, in turn, was using members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang in Canada to kill them.
Second, he was questioned about claims that Canadian officials have identified Home Minister Amit Shah as someone who “authorised the intelligence gathering missions and attacks on Sikh separatists”.
Third, he was questioned about reports in the Washington Post that Canada’s National Security Advisor and Deputy Foreign Minister had a secret meeting in Singapore on Saturday with India’s NSA Ajit Doval to share details about Amit Shah.
The Washington Post reports Doval said India “would deny any link to the Nijjar murder and any link to any other violence in Canada no matter what the evidence was”. Finally, Mr. Gharekhan was questioned about reports in the New York Times that the FBI has co-operated with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to help gather the evidence to support all of this. Should India be worried about the America connection and the apparent co-ordination between America and Canada?
Mr. Gharekhan is also extensively questioned about the statement issued by the MEA on Monday, including the personal charges levelled against Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
