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Informist, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024

 

NEW DELHI – The government summoned a Canadian diplomat Friday to protest in the strongest terms Canada's absurd and baseless allegations against Home Minister Amit Shah, the Ministry of External Affairs said Saturday. This comes after senior Canadian officials told a Parliament panel this week that they had leaked information of Shah's involvement in targeting Canadian nationals to the Washington Post.

 

"The revelation that high Canadian officials deliberately leaked unfounded insinuations to international media as part of a conscious strategy to discredit India and influence other nations, only confirms the view (the) government of India has long held about (the) current Canadian government's political agenda and behavioural pattern," spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Saturday. "Such irresponsible actions will have serious consequences for bilateral ties."

 

Tuesday, Canada's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs David Morrison and intelligence advisor Nathalie Drouin told a parliamentary panel that Shah had ordered a campaign of violence and intimidation against Sikh separatists. Drouin said she leaked the information to the Washington Post to get Canada's version of the story out into the press. This comes amid a diplomatic row between the two countries following the murder of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. The Canadian government earlier this month designated Indian diplomats as "persons of interest" in the case. 

 

The spokesperson also said Indian officials were being targeted and harassed by Canada after Indian diplomats were told they were under surveillance. Jaiswal said this was a flagrant violation of diplomatic and consular conventions. Further, a Canadian intelligence agency called India an "adversary" in a cyber threat report earlier this week, and said that New Delhi was using cyber attacks to track down dissidents living abroad. 

 

"This appears to be another Canadian strategy to attack India," Jaiswal said. "...their senior officials have openly confessed that they are seeking to manipulate global opinion on India. As on other occasions, imputations are made without any evidence."

 

India on Oct. 14 decided to withdraw its High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and other "targeted diplomats and officials" from Canada, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a release, citing lack of faith in the "current Canadian government's commitment to ensure their security" as the reason for the move. The decision was taken after the "baseless targeting of the diplomats and officials in Canada" in connection with Nijjar's murder.

 

Jaiswal Saturday reiterated that Canada had not shared even a "shred of evidence" on the allegations against Shah. He confirmed that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met Canadian officials in Singapore last month.  End

 

Reported by Aaryan Khanna 

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

 

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