New Delhi: In what appears to be an indication of a potential thaw in months of tense relations between India and Canada, Ottawa’s outgoing national security advisor Jody Thomas said New Delhi has been cooperative and discussions regarding the murder case of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar have been “fruitful”.
“I wouldn’t describe them as not cooperating. We have made advancements in that relationship. They understand what we believe happened. The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) investigation is well underway and will hopefully be able to prosecute the individuals responsible,” she told Canadian news outlet CTV in an interview Saturday.
“My discussions with my counterpart in India have been fruitful and they’ve moved things forward,” she added, in reference to her discussions with Indian NSA Ajit Doval.
Diplomatic ties between India and Canada have been rocky ever since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made allegations that there could have been a “potential link” between Indian agents and Nijjar’s death, while speaking on the floor of the parliament last year. Canada also withdrew a number of diplomats in India after New Delhi’s request for “mutual parity” in diplomatic presence.
Earlier this week, a Canadian commission leading an inquiry into allegations of election meddling asked the Trudeau-led government to provide documents relating to India’s possible interference in Ottawa’s polls, in what was perceived as a new jolt to Indo-Canadian ties.
Pannun & Nijjar case ‘connected’
During the interview to CTV, Thomas described the recent cooperation from India as an “evolution” of how the two countries have been engaging on the matter.
Asked if this was spurred by what transpired in the US regarding an alleged plot to kill another Sikh separatist on American soil, the outgoing official said the two cases are “connected”.
Last year, the US Justice Department unsealed an indictment which slapped an Indian national named Nikhil Gupta with murder-for-hire charges in connection with an alleged foiled plot to murder Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. Gupta was accused of conspiring with others and working on the instructions of an Indian government employee.
“The US judicial system is different from ours. They unseal indictments and we don’t. They were investigating a conspiracy, we’re investigating a murder. And theirs was a little more advanced than ours. The information that they revealed supported our position and our assertions with India and India is working with us…far more closely to resolve this,” she added.
The outgoing official, however, also batted for closer India-Canada ties due to larger geopolitical levers at play in the Indo-Pacific region.
“We think it’s important that we resolve what happened to a Canadian citizen but we have to have people-to-people ties. We have a huge diaspora. We need to have a trade relationship. Our ability to function in the Indo-Pacific does rely on having a healthy relationship with India and I think we are working back towards that,” she told CTV.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also read: Canadian inquiry commission asks Trudeau govt for info on alleged election interference by India