Trudeau says Canada has freedom of expression, India argues it must not be misused by Khalistanis

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “freedom of expression” as he countered New Delhi’s allegation that his government in Ottawa failed to deal with the campaign run by the Khalistani Sikh extremists in the North American nation to carve out a Khalistan from India.

Trudeau’s comment drew a sharp response from New Delhi, where the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated that the freedom of expression should not be misused to advocate violence or propagate separatism or legitimise terrorism.

“They are wrong,” Trudeau said in Ottawa after a journalist asked for his comment on New Delhi’s allegation that his government was not doing enough against the Khalistani campaigning in Canada for carving out of India a separate country for the Sikhs. “Canada has always taken violence and threats of violence extremely seriously. We have always taken serious action against terrorism and we always will,” he said.

Read | Wanted in India, Khalistan Tiger Force chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar shot dead in Canada

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had recently said in New Delhi that although India had repeatedly requested Canada to act against the Khalistanis based in the North American country, it had failed, apparently because it had been “driven by vote-bank politics”.

Ottawa’s envoy to New Delhi, Cameron MacKay, was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) recently and was served a démarche.

The Prime Minister of Canada was responding to the allegations from India while talking to journalists. “We have an extremely diverse country and freedom of expression is something that we have. But, we will also make sure that we are pushing back against violence and extremism in all its forms,” he was quoted in media reports from Ottawa.

With Khalistani Sikh extremist organisations circulating flyers with India’s diplomats and consular officials posted in Canada being described as the “faces of the killers”, New Delhi reminded Ottawa its obligations under the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations of 1961 and 1963 respectively.

“The issue is not about freedom of expression. But its misuse for advocating violence, for propagating separatism and for legitimising terrorism. That’s what we would like to emphasise,” Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, told journalists. He said that New Delhi continued to press Ottawa to ensure that India’s diplomats and consular officials could carry out normal functions in Canada without fear or intimidation.

Read | The Punjab drama is dangerous

New Delhi also asked Canberra, London and Washington DC to ensure the security of its diplomats posted in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States respectively as the pictures of some of them too were marked as “the faces of the killers” in the propaganda materials circulated by the Khalistani Sikh organisations online. In view of the plan of the Sikhs for Justice and other pro-Khalistani organisations to hold protest rallies in different cities in the western countries on July 8, New Delhi asked Australia, Canada, the UK and the US to deny any space to anti-India separatist organisations.

The rallies were planned to protest the killing of Hardip Singh Nijjar, who was the commander of the Khalistan Tiger Force and was one of the most wanted terrorists in India. He was living at Surrey in Canada. He was shot dead on June 18 last by masked assailants at the parking lot of the local gurdwara that he was heading. The Khalistanis alleged that Nijjar had been killed by undercover agents working for the Government of India.

James Cleverly, the foreign secretary of the UK, said that any direct attacks on the High Commission of India in London would be "completely unacceptable" for the British government.

"We have taken up this latest issue of threats against our diplomats with the UK authorities. We have noted these comments by the UK foreign secretary but we would naturally judge them by what happens on the ground," said Bagchi.

He said that New Delhi had also taken up the matter with Washington DC after a recent arson attempt at the Consulate General of India in New Delhi.