NEW DELHI, Oct 11 : India on Friday said that “there was no substantive discussion” between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau in Vientiane, and emphasised that Ottawa needs to take firm action, which has been lacking thus far, against anti-India Khalistani activities on Canadian soil.
Canadian PM Trudeau said at a press conference that he had a “brief exchange” with Prime Minister Modi in Vientiane.
Sources said that “India continues to expect that anti-India Khalistani activities will not be allowed to take place on Canadian soil and that firm action, which is lacking thus far, will be taken against those advocating violence, extremism and terrorism against India from Canadian territory.”
The sources added that the “growing nexus of such forces with organized crime, drug syndicates and human trafficking should be a concern for Canada as well”.
The source also said that “India attaches importance to relations with Canada but these cannot be repaired unless the Canadian Government takes strict and verifiable action against those who actively pursue anti-India activities and have conspired to promote hate, disinformation, communal disharmony and violence in India as well as Canada.”
The meeting between the Canadian PM and PM Modi in Vientiane comes a year after Trudeau accused the Indian government of involvement in the killing of prominent Canadian Sikh Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.
Trudeau, speaking to the media in Vientiane on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit, said he had “a brief exchange with Prime Minister Modi in which I emphasised that there is work we need to do”.
Elaborating, he said “I won’t go into details of what we’ve talked about, and what I’ve said many times, is that the safety of Canadians, upholding the rule of law, is among the fundamental responsibilities of any Canadian government, and that’s what I’ll stay focused on. Yes, we need to continue to develop our trade ties and our people-to-people ties, but there are real issues that we need to solve here, and we’re going to stay focused on that”, referring to the killing of Nijjar.
Trudeau’s coalition partner is the New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh, a known Khalistani supporter.
Appealing to the Khalistani segment of Indo-Canadians, Trudeau said that “Canadians can know and be confident that this is an issue that has remained at the forefront of my mind and my responsibilities as leader since the very beginning.”
It is the second time that Trudeau met PM Modi since the bilateral ties turned frosty in September 2023 after the Canadian PM told parliament that Canada was pursuing “credible allegations” of a link to India in the killing of Nijjar.
Nijjar, a 45-year-old Canadian citizen, was shot dead on June 18, 2023, shortly after evening prayers at his Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia.
Four Indian nationals are accused of first-degree murder and conspiracy in connection to his murder. The case is currently in the Canadian courts.
In April this year, India had strongly protested the raising of separatist pro-Khalistan slogans at a Sikh community event in Toronto attended by Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, and summoned the Canadian Deputy High Commissioner in that context.
In May this year, during a talk, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that Canada has been welcoming a number of gangland people with organised crime links from Punjab and ignoring Indian warnings against giving them visa, and therefore killings like that of separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar is an issue that Ottawa has to worry about.
Jaishankar said “..but the fact is the number of gangland people, the number of people with organised crime links from Punjab, have been made welcome in Canada. We have been telling Canada that these are wanted criminals from India, you are giving them visa; many have come on false documentation, and yet you allow them to live there. If you decide to import people with negative backgrounds there will be issues.
“If something has happened there, it is for them to worry about,” he added.
EAM also said that the Khalistani elements have organised themselves politically in Canada and become a political lobby.
“And in some of these democratic countries the politicians of those countries are made to believe that if they defer to these people or pander to these people, these people have some ability to get the community to support them,” he said, in reference to Trudeau, who has taken the support of NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who is a Khalistan sympathiser. Canada is known to have the second highest Sikh population in the world, after India, at over 770,000, or about two percent of its total population. (UNI)
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