After Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified before a Commission of Inquiry, the Ministry Of External Affairs on Thursday said what it has heard only “confirms” India’s consistent stand that Canada has presented no evidence in support of the serious allegations it levelled against India and Indian diplomats.
The Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement on Thursday in response to media queries related to Trudeau’s deposition. “What we have heard today only confirms what we have been saying consistently all along — Canada has presented us no evidence whatsoever in support of the serious allegations that it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.
Our response to media queries regarding PM of Canada’s deposition at the Commission of Inquiry: https://t.co/JI4qE3YK39 pic.twitter.com/1W8mel5DJe
— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) October 16, 2024
The MEA further said, “The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behaviour has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau alone.”
Have No Hard Evidentiary Proof: Trudeau
Trudeau has acknowledged that he had only intelligence and no “hard evidentiary proof” when he alleged the involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year.
Testifying before the public inquiry into foreign interference in federal electoral processes and democratic institutions, Trudeau claimed the Indian diplomats were collecting information on Canadians who are in disagreement with the Narendra Modi government and passing it to the highest levels within the Indian government and criminal organisations like the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
India strongly rejected attempts by the Canadian authorities to link Indian agents with criminal gangs in Canada with official sources in New Delhi even saying that Ottawa’s assertion that it shared evidence with New Delhi in the Nijjar case was simply not true.
On Monday, India expelled six Canadian diplomats and also announced withdrawing its high commissioner from Canada after dismissing Ottawa’s allegations linking the envoy to a probe into the killing of Nijjar.
The escalation in diplomatic row between India and Canada is a major downturn in already frosty ties between the two nations. Last year, Trudeau alleged “potential” involvement of Indian agents in Nijjar’s killing. India had rejected Trudeau’s charges as “absurd”.
Nijjar, who was declared a terrorist by India, was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18 last year.