'We have no faith in...': India recalls High Commissioner & other diplomats from Canada

India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials from Canada, said the Ministry of External Affairs in a statement on Monday.

The MEA said that it was underlined that in an atmosphere of extremism and violence, the Trudeau Government’s actions endangered their safety. “We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials,: it added.

It was also conveyed that India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau Government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India, it said in a statement.

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Earlier today, The Canadian Charge d’Affaires Stewart Wheeler was summoned by Secretary (East) this evening. He was informed that the baseless targeting of the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely unacceptable, it said.

However, Wheeler while talking to the reporters said “Canada has provided credible, irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the Government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil. Now, it is time for India to live up to what it said it would do and look into all those allegations. It is in the interest of both our countries and the people of our countries to get to the bottom of this. Canada stands ready to cooperate with India.”

#WATCH | Delhi: Canadian Chargé d'Affaires Stewart Wheeler leaves from the MEA.

He says, "...Canada has provided credible, irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the Government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil. Now, it is time for India to… pic.twitter.com/RdOXRpoTg6

— ANI (@ANI) October 14, 2024

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The development comes a day after Canada informed India that Indian High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma and other diplomats are ‘persons of interests’ in an ongoing investigation. Earlier in the day, the MEA rejected the said investigation as sham and said that Trudeau was going after Indian diplomats for domestic vote bank politics.

In a statement earlier in the day, the MEA rejected the Canadian claims and described them as “preposterous imputations” rooted in the “political agenda of the Trudeau Government that is cantered around vote bank politics”.

Last year, Trudeau plunged the India-Canada relations to an all-time low when he blamed India for the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistani terrorist. For years, the India-Canada relations had been tense over Trudeau’s patronage of the Khalistani movement for the sake of garnering votes from Khalistani elements in Canada and retaining his former coalition partner Jagmeet Singh who also relies on the Khalistani base’s support.

Referring to the accusation, the MEA said that the Trudeau government “has not shared a shred of evidence with the Government of India despite many requests from our side” .

The MEA added, “This latest step follows interactions that have again witnessed assertions without any facts. This leaves little doubt that on the pretext of an investigation, there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains.”

Regarding years of campaign against India, including interference in Indian politics, the MEA said that the series of actions over the past seven years under Trudeau’s government did nothing but serve the “anti-India separatist agenda that the Trudeau Government has constantly pandered to for narrow political gains”.