Why did Indian envoy say Khalistanis are deep assets of Canadian intelligence?

Defending his remarks that some Khalistani extremists and terrorists are "deep assets" of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Indian envoy Sanjay Kumar Verma has said that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made allegations against India "without evidence" and he also made remarks in the same vein.

In an exclusive interview with ANI, Sanjay Verma, who has been recalled by the Indian government as Trudeau Government's actions "endangered safety" of Indian diplomats, has said that Canada has not shared a shred of evidence over allegations concerning an assassination on its soil.

He asked if Canada will accept his allegations of Khalistani terrorists and extremists are the deep assets of the Canadian intelligence agency.

"As Canadian PM Justin Trudeau got up in parliament and accused Govt of India agents to have orchestrated murder on Canadian soil, I said in the same way that the Khalistani terrorists and extremists are the deep assets of the Canadian intelligence agency. He ( Trudeau) said without evidence, and So am I. Will you accept my conclusion? This is what I wanted to say that nothing should be accepted without credible evidence, allegations are just allegations. Therefore I am not exactly saying there are connections but there may be connections," Verma said.

He was answering a query about his earlier remarks that 'Khalistanis are used as strategic assets by Canadian intelligence agencies'.

"If I speak in English this is double standard, If I speak in Hindi this is 'Doglapan'. They should think about the difference between their words and deeds. When an Indian media person spoke something, they described that it is influence action by 20 people. Why don't they do what they say? Don't we have freedom of expression? Don't our media have freedom? They should think about that. We both are fellow democracies. We both have to keep our relationship good. The relations shouldn't be completely damaged because of a particular regime and government," Verma added.

Answering a query about RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), Verma said it has not lived to its professed reputation of being independent as baseless allegations were made against India.

He said RCMP should be independent agency as it is a probe agency.

"But what saw, it does not come out that it is independent. Whoever are their political masters, it listens to them...".

Verma also said it is largely independent organisation and its probes are independent and if a probe is on to catch a culprit, they do not disclose their investigation till arrest are made and all proof is with them but added that this was not followed when India was blamed.

He said Canadian PM made allegations in country's Parliament without evidence and later admitted to it.

"And this was not about an individual but a country. Being careful about my expression as a diplomat, I will say it is not a good thing," the Indian envoy said.

Verma noted that the Khalistani extremists based in Canada are Canadian citizens who wield significant political influence in the country.

"If you look at the entire episode, and we have always been maintaining that there is no shred of evidence shared with us, I feel it is largely politically motivated and an ill-conceived targeting of India. We are a responsible democracy. We do not have a policy to interfere in the internal affairs of any country," he said.

"The Khalistani extremists and terrorists out of Canada are Canadian citizens. So, they have a lot of political influence there and they have veiled it often. They impress upon various political parties to have their own views. That dependence certainly smells of conspiracy against India. These Khalistani extremists and terrorists are not pro-India but they are also not pro-Canada. They are destroying relations between India and Canada," he added.

He also expressed his disappointment that he was unable to improve ties between the two nations but reiterated his duty to protect India's interests against such allegations.

"It was painful as I had gone there to further improve the ties between the two nations and allegations were levelled against me--that too, such a dirty allegation that might have a bad repute to my country. I don't care about my reputation but no one should slander my country. It feels bad that I was not successful in the work for which I went there but I also feel that if my nation's interests are harmed, then it is my duty to protect my country." Amid worsening ties between the two countries, India had earlier this month "strongly" rejected a diplomatic communication from Canada suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats were "persons of interest" in an investigation and termed it as "preposterous imputations" and part of the political agenda of the Justin Trudeau government.In a hard-hitting statement, India said Prime Minister Trudeau's hostility to India has long been in evidence and his government has consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists "to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada".

India had had expelled six Canadian diplomats hours after it summoned Canada's Charge d'Affaires Stewart Wheeler and conveyed that the "baseless targeting" of the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely unacceptable.

India underlined that in an atmosphere of extremism and violence, the Trudeau Government's actions endangered their safety.

"We have no faith in the current Canadian Government's commitment to ensure their security. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials," MEA said in a release.

The ties between India and Canada soured after Trudeau alleged in the Canadian Parliament last year that he has "credible allegations" of India's hand in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.India has denied all the allegations, calling them "absurd" and "motivated" and has accused Canada of giving space to extremist and anti-India elements in their country.Nijjar, who was designated a terrorist by India's National Investigation Agency in 2020, was shot and killed outside a Gurdwara in Surrey in June last year.

Trudeau had also said earlier this month that his government had not provided India with hard evidence but just intelligence regarding the killing of Nijjar on Canadian soil.Testifying at Canada's foreign interference inquiry, Trudeau said India has been insisting on evidence over allegations levelled by Canada.

"Behind the scenes (were trying) India to co-operate with us. Their ask was...give us the evidence you have on us. Our response was it is within your security agency. You should be looking into how much they know, you should be engaging... 'No, no but show us the evidence'. At that point, it was primarily intelligence, not hard evidentiary proof. So we said let's work together...," he said.