Toronto, Sep 23: Criticising Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his reckless actions in a deepening diplomatic row with India over the killing of a Sikh separatist, Vikas Swarup, a former Indian envoy to the country asked Ottawa to take steps to deescalate the dispute and allow the truth to come out in public.
Swarup, who served as India’s high commissioner to Canada from 2017 to 2019, also repeated the Indian government’s accusations that Ottawa has been too accommodating with violent Sikh separatists, something he said Canada will regret.
He also reminded the Canadian government that “everyone is innocent until proven guilty” and to allow “the rule of law to take its course.” Tensions flared between India and Canada early this week following Prime Minister Trudeau’s explosive allegations of the “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani extremist Nijjar on his country’s soil on June 18 in British Columbia.
India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020. India angrily rejected the allegations as “absurd” and “motivated” and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa’s expulsion of an Indian official over the case.
Swarup called Prime Minister Trudeau reckless for levelling accusations that New Delhi was involved in the assassination of Nijjar, the Calgary Herald newspaper reported. “I have no idea why the Canadian government did what they did,” Swarup told the Global Business Forum at the Fairmont Banff Springs Conference Centre.Banff is a resort town in the Canadian province of Alberta. (PTI)
