Justin Trudeau
Credit: Reuters Photo
New Delhi: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has wrecked his country’s relations with India, on the basis of intelligence, not evidence, Sanjay Kumar Verma, New Delhi’s envoy to Ottawa, said before leaving the North American country.
“On the basis of intelligence, if you want to destroy a relationship, be my guest. And that's what he (Trudeau) did,” Verma told the CTV news channel in Canada in an interview that was aired on Sunday. He reiterated that Ottawa never shared with New Delhi any evidence in support of its allegation that the agents of India had a role to play in the killing of Khalistani Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar at the parking lot of a gurdwara in the British Columbia province of Canada on June 18, 2023.
New Delhi decided to withdraw Verma, an officer of the 1988 batch of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), and five of his colleagues after rejecting Ottawa’s plea to waive their diplomatic immunity and to let the Royal Canadian Mounted Police bring them within the ambit of their probe into the killing of Nijjar and other criminal activities in Canada.
India also retaliated by expelling six diplomats of Canada.
“Nothing at all. No evidence was presented. (This is) politically motivated,” Verma told the CTV, dismissing the allegations of the RCMP and Justin Trudeau’s government in Ottawa about his and other diplomats and officials of India being involved in criminal activities in Canada.
“Canada didn't follow the practice which should have been there. Evidence should have been shared first, but someone decided to stand in Parliament and talk about a thing for which he himself has said there was no hard evidence” Verma said, referring to Trudeau’s statement at the House of Commons – the lower house of Canadian Parliament – on September 18, 2023, when he had first accused India of orchestrating the killing of Nijjar. “And the day on which he did that, since then, he has made sure that the bilateral relations with India only go downwards, spiralling down,” added Verma.
“The problem is that when he accused, he, himself, admitted there was no hard evidence. There was intelligence,” he added.
Verma said that India, being the largest democracy in the world, remained committed not to carry out any extrajudicial killings on any territory. “I know the countries which have done it (extrajudicial killings on foreign territory). And some of them are G7 countries, by the way. So let's not talk about it. There should not be double standards,” he said, taking a dig at the US and Canada.