Indian Minister says extremists are ‘given operating space in Canada’

We know that the row between India and Canada over the killing of Sikh extremist Hardip Singh Nijjar is not showing any signs of slowing down because of the fact that Canada’s PM stated in the parliament that they have evidence of Indian Government’s involvement in the killing of Nijjar who was a Canadian citizen and that the murder took place on Canadian soil as well. It is obvious that Indian side has categorically denied these allegations and have done a tit-for-tat move in expelling the Canadian diplomat from its embassy as well. Now, we can clearly see that things are not in the right shape just after the Indian Minister met the US Minister.

We reported yesterday that the US side have not made any mention of their talks on the murder in their official release but it is reported that the killing was mentioned in the meeting and we don’t know what the reactions were at that time. India’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, S Jaishankar, now says that “The Canadian (prime minister) made some allegations initially privately, and then publicly. And, our response to him, both in private and public, was that what he was alleging was not consistent with our policy,”

So it clearly means that during the G20 summit, the Canadian PM told India about his allegations and this might also be the reason why the Canadian PM was seen being ignored by the Indian PM during his official talks and dinner parties. Despite that, India’s Minister of Foreign Affairs says that if Canada “had anything relevant and specific they would like us to look into,” then India would oblige.

India’s Jaishankar claimed, however, that the issues between Canada and India are not just because of killing of Nijjar and allegations after that. He adds that “the differences went back further than the row over Nijjar’s death adding that the Indian government had long accused Canada of inaction in dealing with Sikh separatist extremism aimed at creating a separate Sikh homeland”. It is worth noting that India strongly opposes the Khalistani movement by some Sikh extremists.