Indian diaspora in Canada have termed as “extremely irresponsible” the allegations against India made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar stating that the former could have reworded or rephrased his statement to ensure that the Hindu and Sikh communities are not impacted.
“The announcement made by Prime Minister Trudeau in the parliament was something that could have been easily avoided and he could have easily followed diplomatic channels,” Indo-Canadian businessman from Brampton Ravi Sharma said.
He was responding to Trudeau’s allegations on the Indian government’s involvement in the fatal shooting of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil.
“The moment the announcement was made, the Hindu community in Canada was on alert and it did create an immediate impact that people felt they were in distress and they were fearful because the pitch that was made in the parliament sounded as if a Hindu government had killed a Sikh leader. Which is not the fact. The fact was very different. And Hindus and Sikhs have always lived in peace and harmony in Canada and the statement made by Prime Minister Trudeau was extremely irresponsible,” Canadian businessman from Brampton said.
Sharma said Trudeau could have “simply reworded it, rephrased it in order to make sure that the communities are not impacted. And this is what I have been hearing from my fellow Hindu and Sikh members and the people that I know. And I hope the communities will work towards strengthening their bonds and this statement will have no impact as far as our community relations go and we will continue to make Canada strong and our brotherhood strong as well.”
Last Thursday, Trudeau said his country stands by the international rules-based order and repeated his charge on India’s role in the killing of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar stating that there are “credible reasons” to believe the same.
Addressing a press conference at Canada’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, Trudeau said, “As I said on Monday, there are credible reasons to believe that agents of the Goverment of India were involved in the killing of a Canadian on Canadian soil. That is …there is something of utmost foundational importance in a country’s rule of law in a world where international rules-based order matters…we have rigorous and independent judges and robust processes…”
The Indo-Canadian businessman, Ravi, said the Canadian government needs to either put out a great proof to prove that the Indian government was involved or there has to be a mechanism that has to work out with a complete, thorough and impartial investigation into the matter and put the complete results out in public so that the public opinion can be rectified or the public opinion can be changed to know exactly what happened and how did this killing transpire.
Indo-Canadian Geeta Bhadauria has meanwhile said: “I think what the Canadian, the Indian government should do is they should not speak through the media, but they should speak through official spokespersons about what they’re doing to resolve this issue.”
She said all this information should be laid out in public because when things happen behind closed doors, “I think that’s when people become suspicious and they lose their trust in their elected leaders.”
Canada recently said it wants to “work constructively with India” regarding the alleged involvement of New Delhi in the killing of Nijjar.
Bhadauria said: “So, I think the first thing is the Canadian and the Indian government, they need to start having some more dialogue and they need to start addressing the issues that have been raised and they need to understand what is the truth, not their individual truths, but what’s the actual truth.”
She said: “We need to find out what exactly happened and make sure that the (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) RCMP can get to the bottom of this. And I think the number one thing that the Canadian and the Indian government need to do, that they need to do is to make sure that they don’t contaminate and corrupt the RCMP’s investigative process.”
On Trudeau’s allegations against India, she said, the announcement was full of prevarications. “It was a lot of possible links, active investigation, and there were no actual solid leads or actual real information that the Canadian public could cling to and understand what’s going on,” she said.
“The Canadian people want to know. We want to know that we’re safe in Canada from foreign governments, from foreigners, and even from terrorist acts within our own country,” Bhadauria added.
Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has assured the Canadian side to take action if they provide specific information in connection with Nijjar’s killing, adding “We are open to looking at it.”
Speaking at a discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Jaishankar said, “We told the Canadians that this is not the government of India’s policy. Secondly, we said if you have something specific and if you have something relevant, let us know. We are open to looking at it…The picture is not complete without the context in a way”.
Notably, Canada has yet to provide any public evidence to support the claim about the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Jaishankar further said that there has been a lot of “organised crime” in Canada in the last few years, and the Indian government has given a lot of information to Canada regarding this.
