 "'Trudeau's political agenda for vote bank': India slams Canada after it targets envoy")
Following the latest escalation by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in ongoing India-Canada tensions, India on Monday slammed Trudeau for dragging in the Indian diplomats in a sham investigation to appease a particular vote bank.
As embattled Trudeau struggles to stay politically afloat, his government on Sunday told India that Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and other diplomats are ‘persons of interest’ in an ongoing investigation in Canada.
In a statement on Monday, the Ministry of External Affairs (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 all-time low, which had already been quite tense for years over his government providing a safe haven to Khalistani terrorists and anti-Indian organised crime networks, by accusing India of assassinating Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.
Referring to the baseless 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.”
The MEA further said that the series of events over the past seven years under Trudeau’s government does nothing but serves the “anti-India separatist agenda that the Trudeau Government has constantly pandered to for narrow political gains”.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsOur response to diplomatic communication from Canada:https://t.co/TepgpVVPxp
— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) October 14, 2024
Highlighting that Verma is the senior-most Indian diplomat in service, the MEA said that the allegations by Canada against him are “ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt”.
‘Trudeau’s hostility to India has long been in evidence’
In the strongest statement yet on Canada’s anti-India campaign, the MEA on Monday directly mentioned Trudeau.
“Prime Minister Trudeau’s hostility to India has long been in evidence,” said the MEA.
Tracing past seven years of anti-India activities of Trudeau, the MEA said that Trudeau even sought a visit to India in 2018 to “curry favour with a vote bank” but the effort “rebounded to his discomfort”.
This was a reference to Trudeau’s disastrous weeklong trip to India in 2018 in which he was snubbed thoroughly over his patronage of Khalistani movement. He also made a mockery of himself with his attire and poor Punjabi dance moves in not-so-subtle attempts to pander to the influential Punjabi voters in Canada. A Khalistani terrorists also attended two events organised by the Canadian High Commission and was photographed with his now-separated wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau.
Referring to the likes of Harjit Sajjan and others in Canadian government who have been overtly sympathetic to Khalistanis, the MEA said that Trudeau’s Cabinet has included individuals who have openly associated with an extremist and separatist agenda regarding India".
Furthering referring to Trudeau’s comments during the 2020-21 farmers’ movement, the MEA said, “His naked interference in Indian internal politics in December 2020 showed how far he was willing to go in this regard.”
Referring to NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, who withdrew support to Trudeau’s minority Liberal government last month, the MEa said that the fact that Trudeau’s “government was dependent on a political party, whose leader openly espouses a separatist ideology vis-à-vis India, only aggravated matters”.
The MEA further said, “Under criticism for turning a blind eye to foreign interference in Canadian politics, his government has deliberately brought in India in an attempt to mitigate the damage. This latest development targeting Indian diplomats is now the next step in that direction. It is no coincidence that it takes place as Prime Minister Trudeau is to depose before a Commission on foreign interference. It also serves the anti-India separatist agenda that the Trudeau Government has constantly pandered to for narrow political gains.”
Referring to constant threats and calls for violence against Indian diplomats in Canada by Khalistani terrorists, the MEA said that “Trudeau government has consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists to harass, threaten, and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada”.
The MEA has said that such threats, including death threats, have been justified in the name of free speech.
How Trudeau plunged India’s ties to all-time low
In September 2023, Trudeau announced in the Canadian parliament that the Canadian authorities were investigating “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
“Over the past number of weeks Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar…Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty," said Trudeau at the time.
India rejected the claim and the two countries soon got into a tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats.
In a rare breach of diplomatic conduct, Canada outed an Indian diplomat as the Canada head of the Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and expelled him. India followed suit and outed Olivier Sylvestere as the Canadian intelligence head in India and expelled him. India further ordered the downgrading of Canadian diplomatic mission in India.
Nijjar, a designated Khalistani terrorist who headed a designated terrorist organisation, was killed in Surrey in June 2023. He was one of the many Khalistani terrorists and organised crime bosses who have found a refuse in Canada under Trudeau.
The Khalistan movement refers to a transnational terrorist movement that seeks to carve out a separate state for Sikhs called Khalistan out of India’s Punjab. The movement waged a bloody insurgency in Punjab for decades that finally ebbed in the 1990s. Even as the movement ebbed in India by 1990s, it found huge pockets of support abroad, most notably in Canada and United Kingdom. From there, Khalistani leaders seek to instigate disturbance in India and harm Indian interests abroad and national standing internationally.
Even before Trudeau went all-out against India, the tensions were out in open. In a tense meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trudeau on the sidelines of the G20 Summit last year, India in an extraordinarily sharp readout said that Modi “conveyed our strong concerns about continuing anti-India activities of extremist elements in Canada”.
The readout further said, “They are promoting secessionism and inciting violence against Indian diplomats, damaging diplomatic premises, and threatening the Indian community in Canada and their places of worship. The nexus of such forces with organized crime, drug syndicates and human trafficking should be a concern for Canada as well. It is essential for the two countries to cooperate in dealing with such threats.”
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
