MONITORING (SW) – Justin Trudeau has accused India of making a “horrific mistake” in violating Canadian sovereignty, amid an escalating diplomatic row over the murder of a Sikh separatist and allegations of a broader campaign of threats and violence against Indian exiles.
Testifying at a public inquiry into foreign interference, the Canadian prime minister accused Delhi of rebuffing efforts to cooperate and causing the increasingly bitter public feud that resulted in the mutual expulsion of senior diplomats, reported Guardian.
“We are not looking to provoke or create a fight with India,” Trudeau said. “The Indian government made a horrific mistake in thinking that they could interfere as aggressively as they did in the safety and sovereignty of Canada. We need to respond in order to ensure Canadians’ safety.”
His comments came in a tumultuous week in which Canadian police accused the Indian diplomats of working with a criminal network led by a notorious imprisoned gangster to target Sikh dissidents in the country. India has rejected the allegations as “ludicrous”.
Responding to Trudeau’s comments, a spokesperson for India’s ministry of external affairs said: “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. The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behaviour has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau alone.”
A parliamentary public safety committee confirmed it will launch an emergency study of RCMP allegations that Indian government agents have been involved in violent crimes in Canada.
