Justin Trudeau with Narendra Modi at g20 2023

International diplomacy used to be an artform, professionals’ domain, longed for by most statesmen of any reckoning. You look at the cesspool where the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken it, it is not even on the fringes of the most ridiculous drafts one can pick in the archives of international relations. Last year, we saw Justin Trudeau abusing the parliamentary privilege in the most unabashed way when he made allegations that the Indian state was behind the killing of Hardip Nijjar. Anyone could see, he was addressing his vote bank and not the international community.

And now after the expulsion of diplomats in tit-for-tat exercise where both India and Canada expelled their embassy staff, the now expelled Indian envoy Sanjay Verma to Canada has openly connected the dots and removed any doubts one had that Justin Trudeau is dancing to the Khalistanis’ tune, to remain in the job. He also alleges that the state agencies have been politicized and are working for their political masters rather than acting in the national interest of Canada.

Mr Verma says some Khalistani extremists and terrorists are “deep assets” of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).He points out that Canada has not shared a shred of evidence over allegations concerning an assassination on its soil.

“As Canadian PM Justin Trudeau got up in parliament and accused Govt of India agents to have orchestrated murder on Canadian soil, I said in the same way that the Khalistani terrorists and extremists are the deep assets of the Canadian intelligence agency. He ( Trudeau) said without evidence, and So am I. Will you accept my conclusion? This is what I wanted to say that nothing should be accepted without credible evidence, allegations are just allegations. Therefore I am not exactly saying there are connections but there may be connections,” Verma told ANI in an interview.

He was answering a query about his earlier remarks that ‘Khalistanis are used as strategic assets by Canadian intelligence agencies’.

“If I speak in English this is double standard, If I speak in Hindi this is ‘Doglapan’. They should think about the difference between their words and deeds. When an Indian media person spoke something, they described that it is influence action by 20 people. Why don’t they do what they say? Don’t we have freedom of expression? Don’t our media have freedom? They should think about that. We both are fellow democracies. We both have to keep our relationship good. The relations shouldn’t be completely damaged because of a particular regime and government,” Verma added.

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Mr Verma also said the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police),  has not lived to its reputation of being independent. Being a probe agency, RCMP should be an independent agency.

“But what saw, it does not come out that it is independent. Whoever are their political masters, it listens to them…”.

Mr Verma believes that the Khalistani extremists being Canadian citizens wield significant political influence in the country.

“If you look at the entire episode, and we have always been maintaining that there is no shred of evidence shared with us, I feel it is largely politically motivated and an ill-conceived targeting of India. We are a responsible democracy. We do not have a policy to interfere in the internal affairs of any country,” he said.

“The Khalistani extremists and terrorists out of Canada are Canadian citizens. So, they have a lot of political influence there and they have veiled it often. They impress upon various political parties to have their own views. That dependence certainly smells of conspiracy against India. These Khalistani extremists and terrorists are not pro-India but they are also not pro-Canada. They are destroying relations between India and Canada,” he added.

India-Canada relations slump disappointing
Mr Verma as India’s diplomat could not improve the fledgling bilateral ties. That is a regret he has.

“It was painful as I had gone there to further improve the ties between the two nations and allegations were levelled against me–that too, such a dirty allegation that might have a bad repute to my country. I don’t care about my reputation but no one should slander my country. It feels bad that I was not successful in the work for which I went there but I also feel that if my nation’s interests are harmed, then it is my duty to protect my country.”

Indian High Commissioner – a person of interest: Canada

When Canada sent a diplomatic communication suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats were “persons of interest” in the investigation, India “strongly” rejected and termed it as “preposterous imputations” and part of the political agenda of the Justin Trudeau government.

In a hard-hitting statement, India pointed to Prime Minister Trudeau’s hostility to India and said his government has consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists “to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada”.

India expelled six Canadian diplomats, hours after it summoned Canada’s Charge d’Affaires Stewart Wheeler and conveyed that it will not accept the “baseless targeting” of the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada.

India said the Trudeau Government’s actions endangered the safety of its diplomats.

“We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials,” MEA said in a release.

Justin Trudeau earlier this month admitted that his government had not provided India with hard evidence but just intelligence regarding the killing of Nijjar on Canadian soil.

To India’s request for evidence, “… it was primarily intelligence, not hard evidentiary proof”, Trudeau said testifying at Canada’s foreign interference inquiry.

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