New Delhi, Oct 17 (EFE).- India said Thursday that the deep diplomatic crisis with Canada, which has worsened in recent days with the mutual-expulsion of diplomats from both countries, is the sole responsibility of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, accused India and China a day earlier of being involved in foreign interference in Canada.
A security official checks a car outside the Canadian Embassy in New Delhi, India, 15 October 2024. EFE-EPA/RAJAT GUPTA
“The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behavior (of Trudeau) has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau alone,” the official spokesperson of the Indian government, Randhir Jaiswal, said in a statement issued in response to questions from the media.
Asked about Trudeau’s latest remarks, who on Wednesday reiterated his accusations against India before the commission investigating interference by other countries in the Canadian democratic system, Jaiswal criticized Ottawa for not having presented India with any evidence to support the “serious allegations that it (the Trudeau administration) has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats.”
On Monday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police accused the Indian ambassador in Ottawa, Sanjay Kumar Verma, of being involved in the murder of the leader of the Sikhs for Justice organization, Hardeep Singh Nijjar – who was shot in June last year -, and finally expelled him from the country along with five other Indian diplomats.
The government of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded in a similar way, announcing the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats from India, giving them a period of five days to leave the country.
Some members of the Sikh community, originally from the Punjab state of India, have for decades sought the creation of an independent state called Khalistan in northwestern India.
A large Sikh community resides in Canada, which has made this North American country a center of activity for the separatist movement.
India has accused Canada of providing shelter to Sikh extremists and allowing anti-India activities on its territory, including protest demonstrations and the holding of a Khalistan referendum.
For its part, Canada has criticized the repression of religious minorities in India and has defended the right to freedom of expression of Canadian Sikhs.
In a similar case in the United States, American authorities met with representatives of the Indian government on Wednesday to investigate a failed assassination attempt in 2023 on a Sikh separatist leader in New York, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, allegedly commissioned by a senior Indian official.
“We are satisfied with the cooperation…it continues to be an ongoing process. We continue to work with them on that, but we do appreciate the cooperation, and we appreciate them updating us on their investigation as we update them on ours,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a press briefing.
India had told the US that the senior official accused by the Justice Department of plotting the assassination was no longer part of the Indian government, he added. EFE
jgv/pd