NEW Delhi has slammed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “cavalier” over his handling of the disastrous diplomatic fallout following the 2023 killing of a Sikh separatist in Canada.
It held firm its defiant stance towards Ottawa yesterday, an approach in sharp contrast to its compliant attitude this week towards the United States, where India is also accused of directing a separate assassination plot.
Canada has alleged that India arranged the killing of a Sikh separatist, naturalised Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, murdered in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver in June 2023.
India has called the allegations “preposterous”.
But Trudeau, at a parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday, said Canada had “clear... indications that India had violated Canada’s sovereignty”.
Canada’s top envoy to New Delhi, Stewart Wheeler, who India has ordered to leave by tomorrow night, has said Ottawa had provided “credible, irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen”.
India’s foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal yesterday said they had not seen that evidence.
“Canada has presented us (India) no evidence whatsoever in support of the serious allegations that it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats,” he said in a statement.
“The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behaviour has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau alone.”
Nijjar – who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015 – had advocated for a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan, carved out of India.
He had been wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.
Four Indian nationals have been arrested in connection with Nijjar’s murder. — AFP
