New Delhi: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that the US indictment in the alleged plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun has forced India to adopt a “sober tone” even with Canada.
While emphasising that he does not want a fight with India, he said that New Delhi has realised that it cannot “bluster its way through” with Canada by taking a tough diplomatic stand.
Trudeau was referring to the tense relations between India and Canada since September when he had said that his government was investigating “credible allegations” of a “potential link” between agents of the Indian government and the June killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as part of his year-end interview, Wednesday, Trudeau said, “We (Canada) don’t want to be in a situation of having a fight with India right now over this. We want to be working on that trade deal. We want to be advancing the Indo-Pacific strategy.”
“But it is foundational for Canada to stand up for people’s rights, for people’s safety, and for the rule of law,” he added.
Last month, the Canadian PM called for India to take Ottawa’s allegations “seriously”, after the US indictment was unsealed, asserting that the indictment highlights that he was correct about his allegations against India.
In the interview, he said: “I think there is a beginning of an understanding that they can’t bluster their way through this and there is an openness to collaborating in a way that perhaps they were less open before.”
He added: “There’s an understanding that maybe, maybe just churning out attacks against Canada isn’t going to make this problem go away.”
CBC added that Trudeau said the US indictment appears to have convinced the Modi government to adopt a more sober tone.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had Wednesday reacted for the first time to US allegations of an Indian plot to assassinate Pannun, in an interview with the British daily Financial Times.
“If someone gives us any information, we would definitely look into it,” Modi said. “If a citizen of ours has done anything good or bad, we are ready to look into it. Our commitment is to the rule of law.”
New Delhi had rejected Ottawa’s allegations about the killing of Nijjar, calling them “absurd and motivated”. Consequently, the two countries expelled each other’s diplomats.
Canada also withdrew 41 diplomats and 42 dependents in October after New Delhi repeatedly sought diplomatic parity. Trudeau accused India of “arbitrarily” removing these diplomats and violating the Vienna Convention. While the US and UK backed Canada’s allegations, New Delhi asserted that its actions were “fully consistent with Article 11.1 of the Vienna Convention”.
The US indictment, which was unsealed on 29 November before a New York district court, accused Indian citizen Nikhil Gupta and an unnamed Indian government employee in a “failed plot” to kill Pannun, an American and Canadian citizen.
Pannun, who is founder of the banned US-based group Sikhs for Justice, was designated a terrorist by India in 2020.
Gupta, 52, was arrested by Czech authorities on 30 June.
Commenting on the unsealed indictment, India had last month termed the issue a “matter of concern” and “contrary” to Indian government policy.
Roughly a week before the indictment was unsealed, India had announced the setting up of a ‘high-level’ inquiry committee on 18 November to probe “all relevant aspects of the matter”.
The government will take necessary follow-up action based on the findings of the committee, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said at a press briefing.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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