Khalistan extremists Canada deep assets, Justin Trudeau destroyed ties: Indian envoy

“No evidence has been presented… It’s politically motivated and if Mr Trudeau or his colleagues know about it, is it not a crime not to file a charge sheet… go through the judicial process?” he said.

Asked if he had done anything, he said, “I, as High Commissioner of India, had never done anything… Do we want to know what pro-Khalistani elements in Canada are doing? Yes, we do. That’s my national interest. That’s my core concern with Canada, which is trying to tear up Indian territory.”

Canada’s Acting High Commissioner to India Stewart Ross Wheeler outside the MEA in New Delhi. (PTI/File)

Asked if anything illegal was done, Verma said, “It is all overt. There’s nothing covert. It’s all overt. So we read the newspapers, we read their statements since we understand Punjabi, so we read their social media posts, and try to infer from there.”

Asked whether the Government of India has ever been involved in targeting any of these individuals, he said, “Never, with full responsibility.”

On whether he condemned Nijjar’s murder, he said, “Any murder is wrong and bad. I do condemn… Let’s get to the bottom of the issue. But to get to the bottom of the issue, there has to be evidence shared that you have, and we will share our evidence. Don’t we do that in extradition cases?”

Asked about extrajudicial murders, he said, “It should not happen anywhere in the world. I know the countries which have done it, and some of them are G7 countries. By the way, let’s not talk about it. There should not be double standards. So, as far as we are concerned, the largest democracy in the world, we are committed not to do extrajudicial killings on any territory.”

On the US indictment in the alleged plot against pro-Khalistan figure Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, he said, “So indictment is not a conviction… It will follow its judicial process, and we are fine with that, so much so that we ourselves formed a committee, a high-level committee, to help the Americans in this. I will not be able to talk much about it, because my mandate is India-Canada relations and not India-US relations.”

On the connection between the two plots, Verma said, “I entirely refute this connection due to various reasons… Canada didn’t follow the practice, which should have been there, evidence should have been shared first. But someone decided to stand in parliament and talk about a thing for which he (referring to Trudeau) himself has said there was no evidence. So, let’s be very clear what we are talking about. And the day on which he did that, since then, he has made sure that bilateral relations with India only goes downwards, spiralling down.”

About the RCMP being politically independent, he said, “How politically independent they are… we can discuss it till the cows come home … So till two days before, they said there is no evidence to share… and all of a sudden, there is other evidence in the world available with them. So let’s not go there. And the political motivation. I have been talking about it for a long time. No institution can remain completely aloof from what’s happening politically.”

On Trudeau’s charge, Verma said, “On the basis of intelligence, if you want to destroy a relationship, be my guest.”

On the people linked to murder cases, he said, “Some of them came here as innocent international students, and they turned into criminals in this country. I don’t know what happened. How did they get influenced? I have no information on that.”

“What they call this evidence is hearsay, and I know for sure that they go from one person to the other asking them about the hearsay. Most of them are those who are pro-Khalistan elements, anti-India elements, anti India-Canada elements, and then they take that as evidence,” he said.

“Largely given the mistrust that we have on Mr. Trudeau and his team, we will have concerns and discuss it very carefully with them. Our security and safety are concerns… Khalistani extremists are being encouraged all the time. This is my allegation. I am not giving any evidence of that. I also know that some of these Khalistan extremists are deep assets of CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service).”

On whether Indian and Canadian diplomats will be replaced and the impact this will have on bilateral ties, Verma said, “It is a matter of conversation between the two governments. As far as the relationship itself is concerned, it is a large relationship. Canada had been a friend of India. Canada will remain a friend of India. There have been issues between two countries that many countries have. That’s not a surprise. We only want the Canadian regime of the day, the government of the day, to understand my core concerns and try to act on that sincerely, rather than for those who are trying to challenge Indian sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“The largest Sikh population in the world is in India. They undergo elections at least every five years. Their election voting percentage is much higher than any time of Canadian elections… What happens to India will be decided by Indians. These Khalistani terrorists and extremists who are based out of Canada are not Indians. They are Canadian citizens, and no government should encourage their citizens to attack sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.

He said “people-to-people relationship, trade relationship, cultural relationship, science and technology, education relationships have got nothing to do with that… The larger picture is that I don’t see much impact on non-political bilateral relations.