New Delhi: India hit out at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Thursday saying there was a gap between his actions and words after he said Canada believed in “One India” and that its official policy was to defend its territorial integrity.
Speaking at a press briefing, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Randhir Jaiswal also described the fraying of ties between India and Canada as an “evolving situation”, and said there were certain actions in New Delhi’s domain should Ottawa decide to further escalate the matter with diplomatic sanctions.
On Trudeau’s ‘One India’ remark, made while he was testifying before the Foreign Interference Commission Wednesday, Jaiswal said, “We have seen those comments of Prime Minister Trudeau that he believes in the ‘One India’ policy, but so far the actions that we have requested against anti-India elements…who actually go against ‘One India’, who call for the dismemberment and disunity of the country, who espouse separatist ideology…no action has been taken.”
“In a sense, there is a difference, there is a gap between action and words here,” Jaiswal further said, as the chill in diplomatic relations between the two countries continues over Ottawa’s allegations of a link between Indian government officials and the 2023 killing of Sikh separatist and India-designated terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
‘No faith in Canadian govt’
The diplomatic row between New Delhi and Ottawa escalated earlier this week, after the Canadian government requested India to waive diplomatic immunity for its high commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and five other diplomats, labelling them as “persons of interest” in the investigation into the killing of Nijjar.
New Delhi called them back Monday and subsequently expelled six high-ranking Canadian diplomats, including the acting high commissioner and the deputy high commissioner.
While Ottawa has claimed the Indian diplomats were expelled, Jaiswal reaffirmed at the Thursday briefing that India withdrew its diplomats before any expulsion notice was issued by Canada.
Jaiswal said India had informed the acting high commissioner that New Delhi had “no faith that the Canadian government would look after the safety of our diplomats and therefore we had taken the decision to withdraw our high commissioner and along with him five other diplomats”.
“Subsequently to that, we saw a communication from the Canadian side asking them to leave. But we had withdrawn our diplomats before their decision,” the MEA spokesperson added.
As the row escalated, Canada foreign minister Mélanie Joly at a joint press briefing with Trudeau announced Monday that “everything is on the table” including diplomatic sanctions of Indian diplomats.
In response to this, Jaiswal said, “Well, we will see. This is an evolving situation on how things go. There are certain actions that lie in the domain of the Canadian government, there are actions that lie in our domain as well, so we will see.”
The MEA spokesperson was also clear that in the last decade and a half, India submitted 26 extradition requests for criminals that left the country for Canada, which were still pending. Some of the individuals New Delhi has sought include Gurjit Singh, Gurjinder Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Lakhbir Singh (Landa) and Arshdeep Singh Gill, and members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
According to Jaiswal, a number of those India sought extradited included for terrorism charges. However, Ottawa had not taken any action regarding New Delhi’s requests till date, he said.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also read: India blames Trudeau’s ‘cavalier behaviour’ for chill in ties with Canada
Trudeau and his ministers by pandering to Khalistanis have aided and abetted forces inimical to the territorial integrity, stability and security of India. As Trudeau says rule of law should be respected. So why cant India pursue sanctions against these ministers? When Canadian ministers mention sanctions, the same actions should be applied against Canadian minsters now. Since Khalistani support has been going on for a while and multiple warnings issued, India does not need to wait any further.