Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday, October 16, acknowledged that he had no “hard evidentiary proof” but only intelligence when he went public with the alleged involvement of Indian government agents being behind the killing of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year, The Indian Express reported.
Besides this, he also claimed that the Indian government made a “horrific mistake” thinking it could “interfere as aggressively as they did in the safety and sovereignty of Canada”.
“I was briefed on the fact that there was intelligence from Canada, and possibly from Five Eyes allies that made it fairly clear, incredibly clear, that India was involved in this…Agents of the Government of India were involved in the killing of a Canadian on Canadian soil,” he said.
His testimony at the public inquiry into foreign interference in federal elections and democratic institutions came just days after a significant escalation in the diplomatic dispute between the two nations, resulting in the expulsion of diplomats from both sides.
‘Wanted to engage with Indian government’
Trudeau said his immediate approach to the matter was to engage with the Indian government who later asked them for evidence supporting Canada’s claim. However, Trudeau said their response was “well, it’s within your security agencies”, adding that the Indian government was insisting on the evidence. “And at that point, it was primarily intelligence, not hard evidentiary proof. So we said, well, let’s work together and look into your security services and maybe we can get that done,” he added.
‘Could have made G20 very uncomfortable for India’
Talking about the G20 summit hosted by India in New Delhi last year, Trudeau said that Canada could have made it “a very uncomfortable summit” for India if it went public with the claims. “We chose not to. We chose to continue to work behind the scenes to try and get India to cooperate with us,” he further said.
He stated that after the G20 summit, he met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed that Canada knew India was involved and raised serious concerns about it. However, PM Modi emphasised that Canada has individuals critical of the Indian government whom he would like to see arrested.
The MEA released a statement on the matter that what Trudeau said only confirms what India had been saying. “What we have heard today only confirms what we have been saying consistently all along – Canada has presented us no evidence whatsoever in support of the serious allegations that it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats. The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behaviour has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau alone,” the statement read.