Trudeau: After Unconstructive Quiet Diplomacy, Went Public To Deter India
TORONTO (IANS) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that his statement linking Indian agents to the killing of Khalistani Hardeep Singh Nijjar was meant to deter India from repeating a similar action in the country.
In an interview with Canadian Press, Trudeau said he went ahead with the September 18 revelations in the House of Commons as they were “worried about who could be next or what would happen next” after Nijjar’s killing in June this year in British Columbia province.
The Prime Minister further added that the message was intended as an extra ‘level of deterrence’ as “too many Canadians were worried that they were vulnerable”.
“We felt that all the quiet diplomacy and all the measures that we put in and ensured that our security services put in to keep people safe in the community, needed a further level of deterrence, perhaps of saying publicly and loudly that we know, or we have credible reasons to believe, that the Indian government was behind this,” Trudeau told the Canadian Press.
“And, therefore, put a chill on them continuing or considering doing anything like this,” he added.
Trudeau acknowledged weeks of “quiet diplomacy” before he made the public statement that included raising the allegations with India at the highest levels, especially during the G20 Summit in early September.
“We knew it would be difficult conversations, but we also knew that this was an important moment for India to be demonstrating its leadership on the world stage with the G20,” Trudeau said. “And we felt that we could use that as a constructive opportunity to work together,” Trudeau said, adding that he felt those talks were not constructive.
The Canadian leader’s allegation has dented the bilateral relations between the two nations, with India calling the claims ‘absurd’ and ‘motivated’.
Trudeau had said that his government shared details of the allegations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his India visit in September, asking New Delhi to cooperate in the investigation.
In addition, Canadian government sources told media outlets that Ottawa had amassed intelligence involving communications between Indian officials, diplomats, and information “provided by an unnamed ally in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance”, during a month-long probe on Nijjar’s killing.
“You are talking about illegal wiretaps and talking about evidence. Conversations between two diplomats are secure by all international law,” said Sanjay Verma, India’s High Commissioner to Canada.
In an interview to the Globe and Mail newspaper, Verma said that diplomats’ conversations are protected under international law and cannot be used as evidence in court or publicly released.
VIJAY
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Well, Mr. Prime Minister, why don’t you deal first with the terrorists in your country?
December 14, 2023Pradeep Srivastava
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According to theintercept.com article of December 10, 2023, “ SECRET INDIAN MEMO ORDERED “CONCRETE MEASURES” AGAINST HARDEEP SINGH NIJJAR TWO MONTHS BEFORE HIS ASSASSINATION IN CANADA”, India was targeting Sikh separatists with a “sophisticated crackdown scheme” in the West as per a document obtained by The Intercept.
“THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT instructed its consulates in North America to launch a “sophisticated crackdown scheme” against Sikh diaspora organizations in Western countries, according to a secret memorandum issued in April 2023 by India’s Ministry of External Affairs. The memo, which was obtained by The Intercept, lists several Sikh dissidents under investigation by India’s intelligence agencies, including the Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
“Concrete measures shall be adopted to hold the suspects accountable,” the memo says. Nijjar was murdered in Vancouver in June, two months after being named as a target in the document, a killing the Canadian government said was ordered by Indian intelligence.
The memo addresses India’s growing concerns about its reputation due to activism from Sikh dissident organizations and portrays its political enemies as extremist or even terrorist organizations. Titled “Action Points on Khalistan Extremism,” using the name Sikh activists use for a separatist state, the document lists several Sikh activist organizations it blames for engaging in “anti-India propaganda,” as well as acts of “arson and vandalization” targeting Indian interests in North America.
The document instructs officials at its consulates to cooperate with Indian intelligence agencies to confront the groups Sikhs for Justice, Babbar Khalsa International, Sikh Youth of America, Sikh Coordination Committee East Coast, World Sikh Parliament, and Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar America. It suggests that Nijjar and several other “suspects” are affiliated with one of these groups, Babbar Khalsa International. Babbar Khalsa International is proscribed as a terrorist organization in the U.S. and Canada, but the other organizations named in the document are considered legal in both countries.
A leader of one of another of the listed groups, Sikhs for Justice, was the target of an Indian assassination plot, according to federal prosecutors in the U.S. The indictment, unsealed last week, accused Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national, of working with Indian officials to kill Sikhs for Justice general counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an American citizen based in New York.
The leaked April memo from India’s Ministry of External Affairs does not explicitly order the killings of Sikh activists. Instead, it calls on Indian consular officials operating in the U.S. and Canada to work in cooperation with India’s Research and Analysis Wing, a foreign intelligence agency; the National Investigation Agency, a counterterror police force; and the Intelligence Bureau, an internal security agency akin to the FBI. Aside from Nijjar, a number of people accused in the document of having ties with BKI are believed to be based in Pakistan or currently incarcerated in India.“….
According to Wikipedia, “The Intercept is an online American nonprofit news organization that publishes articles and podcasts”
December 14, 2023and “The organization has been involved in several controversies” It has won awards for its work.
Samay
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I’ve said it before. The Indian Canadian community needs to stop voting for liberals. Why would you vote for a party that openly hates you, and actively defends a terrorist who openly wants to ethically cleanse you, simply because of the religion you follow? What’s pathetic of liberals and progressives love to preach about how “woke” and anti racist they are. You think liberals would be outraged by this. Nope. It’s just their lies.
December 14, 2023