On Sunday (20th October), CTV News published an interview of former Indian High Commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, who was recently recalled by the Indian government over security concerns.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had accused the Indian career diplomat of facilitating the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil, without providing any hard evidence. The Liberal Trudeau government had additionally declared him as a ‘person of interest.’
Before leaving the country, Sanjay Kumar Verma sat down with CTV News correspondent Vassiliki “Vassy” Kapelos and exposed the logical fallacies in the claims of the Canadian government. He lashed out at the Trudeau government for jeopardising bilateral ties with India in exchange for appeasing Khalistanis.
1. No evidence shared by Canada
During the course of the 26-minute-long interview, the CTV journalist remained fixated on the sweeping claims made by the Trudeau government and the RCMP despite no evidence to back it up.
Sanjay Kumar Verma insisted that Canada show evidence before accusing a sovereign, democratic nation like India of carrying out extra-territorial killings.
At the very onset, he stated, “We needed to see some evidence on the basis of which we can converse with our Canadian counterparts. Unfortunately, not a shred of evidence has been shared with us. Any evidence which is shared has to be legally acceptable. We are a country of rule of law, and so is Canada.”
The former Indian High Commissioner to Canada emphasised, “So, therefore, anything which is acceptable in the Canadian court of law would largely also be acceptable in the Indian court of law, and therefore that evidence would work. Unfortunately, we have not got anything from any Canadian official which can lead us to a better spot.”
2. Trudeau resorted to political grandstanding
Sanjay Kumar Verma was quick to point out how Canada flouted established protocols to score political brownies and harmed ties with India in the process.
“Canada didn’t follow the practice which should have been there. Evidence should have been shared first. But someone decided to stand in the parliament and talk about a thing for which he himself has said there was no hard evidence. So let’s be very clear what we are talking about. And the day on which he did that, since then he has made sure that the bilateral relation with India only goes downwards, spiralling down,” he highlighted.
The career diplomat further added that the Trudeau government has nothing but evidence in the form of hearsay, obtained from anti-India and pro-Khalistani elements residing in Canada. Despite this, other politicians in the country was willing to accept political speeches in the Parliament as ‘biblical evidence.’
3. On political bias of RCMP
During the interview, the CTV News correspondent Vassy tried to portray the RCMP as an independent authority. Sanjay Kumar Verma instantly called her bluff out.
“How politically independent they are, we can discuss it till the cows come home. They are. That’s your view.I will give you my view. So till two days before, they said there is no evidence to share. And in PFI, in the Foreign Reference Committee meeting, and all of a sudden, there was all the evidence in the world available with them,” he stated.
“So let’s not go there. And the political motivation, I have been talking about it for a long time. No official, no institution can remain completely aloof of what’s happening politically,” he further added.
4. A deliberate ‘meeting’ stunt at the 11th hour
On being quizzed about RCMP officials willing to meet their Indian counterparts but the Indian government not entertaining them, Sanjay Kumar Verma clarified how such a request came at the 11th hour without any clear agenda for the meeting.
“They wanted to leave for India on the 8th of October. They gave their completed application form only on the 8th of October. So, visa needs to be affixed.For any delegation, government delegation, to travel to another country, you need an agenda to go by. There was no agenda at all,” he stated.
“I think it was pre-planned. They knew that the visa cannot be issued in half an hour to an hour, and therefore they did it.I think it was absolutely politically motivated,” he highlighted his concerns.
The ex-High Commissioner pointed out, “There is a time which is taken to issue a visa. Between India and Canada, there is no visa-free agreement. So, therefore, in general, I can tell you, in general, for a government official from India to come to Canada, it would take at least a week to get the visa…So, the visa is one. Second is, what did they want to talk about? That was not shared at all.”
5. On being declared a ‘person of interest’ in Canada
During the interview with CTV News, Sanjay Kumar Verma also talked about the decision of the Canadian government to declare him as a ‘person of interest.’
He outrightly rubbished the allegations levelled at him as politically motivated, devoid of any evidence. The recalled diplomat asked why the Trudeau government did not go ahead and file a chargesheet if they had the evidence.
While discussing the request of the Canadian authorities to the Indian government to waive his diplomatic immunity, Verma inquired, “On what basis? If you are a defendant, for example, which I’m not, then you will be shared with the evidence. On the basis of which anything can take place. And that happens even if you have been caught for a petty crime.”
“If I am going for an interrogation, I need to know what I am (being) interrogated for. I need to know what is the evidence that you have. So that I go prepared. Let me see what concrete evidence Mélanie Joly is talking about. As far as I’m concerned, she’s talking politically.As far as I’m concerned, she has got nothing in her hand,” he added.
6. On allegations against Indian diplomats
The RCMP and the Canadian government had accused Sanjay Kumar Verma and 5 other Indian diplomats of gathering information and providing it to the assassins of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
He clarified, “First of all, I as High Commissioner of India had never done anything of that kind. That is one. Second, my colleagues, do we want to know what pro-Kalistani elements in Canada are doing? Yes, we do. That’s my national interest. That’s my core concern with Canada which is trying to tear up Indian territory.””
“So if the Canadian politicians are so novice that they want me not to know what my enemies are doing here, I am sorry. Then they do not know what the international relation is all about. There is nothing covert. It’s all overt. So we read the newspapers, we read their statements. Since we understand Punjabi, so we read their social media posts and try to infer from there,” he emphasised.
7. India’s position on extra judicial killings
Verma was quick to condemn the killing of Nijjar and added that India believes in the rule of law. He however pointed out how some G7 countries, with a proven track record of extra-territorial assassinations, were lecturing India without evidence.
The career diplomat stated, “It (extra judicial killings) should not happen anywhere in the world. I know the countries which have done it. And some of them are G7 countries, by the way. So let us not talk about it. There should not be double standards.”
“So as far as we are concerned, the largest democracy in the world, we are committed not to do extrajudicial killings on any territory, leave foreign countries,” he added.
8. Canada has become a hotbed of Khalistanis
The former Indian High Commissioner raised alarms about how people who come to Canada on student visa get involved in terrorist activities.
Some of them came here as innocent international students, and they turned into criminals in this country. I don’t know what happened. How did they get influenced?” he asked bluntly.
“There are so many things. Khalistani extremists are being encouraged all the time…I also know that some of these Khalistani extremists and terrorists are deep assets of CISIS,” Sanjay Kumar Verma emphasised.
The ex-Indian High Commissioner to Canada stated that India is home to the largest Sikh population and that the ones instigating seperatism of Punjab are based in Canada.
“These Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who are based out of Canada, are not Indians. They are Canadian citizens, and no government should encourage their citizens to attack sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries,” he concluded.
9. Inaction by Trudeau govt on evidence provided by India
Sanjay Kumar Verma stated that the Indian government sent 26 dossiers to Canada, providing evidence about Khalistani terrorists operating from Canadian soil and yet no action was taken against them.
He said, “We have sent 26 dossiers to Canada. What has happened?”, he inquired. In another segment of the interview, the career diplomat pointed out, “The most important case at hand from our point of view are the 26 extradition requests, and so many other arrest requests.”
He pointed out, “We only want the Canadian regime of the day, the government of the day, to understand my core concerns, and try to act on that sincerely, rather than being bedfellows with those who are trying to challenge Indian sovereignty and territorial integrity.
10. No bullying developing country
Lastly, Sanjay Kumar Verma made it clear to the CTV News journalist Vassy, who was seemingly working on Trudeau’s agenda, that India would no longer be bullied.
“Gone are the days when the so-called developed countries or Western bloc would ask a developing country, you must do this, and they will run after them and do it,” he made it crystal clear.
“We are a rule-of-law country, as Canada prides itself to be a rule-of-law country,” the ex-Indian High Commissioner to Canada underlined.
