India is playing the good faith card. New Delhi said Tuesday it was willing to examine evidence presented by Canada, which accuses it of involvement in the murder of a leader of the Sikh religious community near Vancouver.
Relations between India and Canada have deteriorated markedly since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that New Delhi was responsible for the death of Indian-born but Canadian-born Hardeep Singh Nijjard.
India ignores ‘absurd’ accusations
When asked if India would study the evidence provided by Canada, the head of Indian diplomacy, visiting New York for the United Nations General Assembly, assured that New Delhi would examine the evidence provided by any country.
“If there is an incident that is problematic and someone gives me specific information as a government, of course I would look into it,” Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said.
Ottawa’s accusations, described as “absurd” by India, caused a major diplomatic crisis between both countries, marked by reciprocal expulsions of diplomats and the temporary cessation of the processing of visa applications in Canada by the Indian Government.
“In fact, we harassed the Canadian authorities, we gave them a lot of information about the leaders of organized crime operating from Canada,” defended the head of Indian diplomacy.
“Our concern is only related to the fact that Canada has been very permissive for political reasons,” he then accused. “We find ourselves in a situation where our diplomats are threatened, our consulates are attacked,” she lashed out.
Independentists in New Delhi’s sights?
All eyes were on India, as Hardeep Singh Nijjar, shot dead in June by two masked men in the parking lot of the temple he ran near Vancouver, was one of the leaders of a Sikh independence movement that advocated the creation of a State, “Khalistan”. , in northern India.
Canada is home to the world’s largest Sikh community outside of India: 770,000 Canadians claim to belong to the religion in 2021, or 2% of the country’s population. Hundreds of them demonstrated outside India’s diplomatic missions in Canada on Monday.
Source: BFM TV
