Ganesh Kendale
NEW DELHI: Indian government believes Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s move to escalate matters over the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was triggered by his deposition scheduled for Wednesday before an influential commission to explain the charge that his government has been derelict in preventing China’s interference in domestic politics.
Top sources here maintained that Trudeau fired his fresh volley of charges, essentially a reiteration of his earlier accusations, on the eve of the appearance of functionaries of his office before the Foreign Interference Commission, which is holding a hearing into the charge of the liberal regime having failed to stop China from having a free run in Ottawa.
“The effort seems to be a counter to the damning perception by manufacturing a narrative that it was India which was meddling in internal affairs,” said a source familiar with details of multiple rounds of parleys between the two govts since last year when Trudeau first raised the alleged involvement of Indian agencies in Nijjar’s killing.
He also said that despite the feverish sabre-rattling, Trudeau and his security establishment, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police which broke away from its protocol to go public with its accusations, have yet to produce evidence to back up their “outrageous charge”.
“Insinuations and show of righteous indignation cannot be a substitute for evidence,” said another top source as he debunked the Trudeau regime’s claim that they had shared strong evidence with India in support of their case.
“In contrast, we have shared incontrovertible evidence of terrorists like Nijjar and his sympathisers using Canada as their base. We cited specific instances of crimes with dates and other details so strong that they had to acknowledge Nijjar’s involvement in terror activities,” the source said.
The security establishment here also emphasised that while the proliferation of criminal gangs was an open secret and has caused concern, the Trudeau regime remained in denial mode because of the fear of annoying groups which have acquired outsized clout at a time the PM’s approval ratings are declining before elections.
“To present rivalries of criminals as a vast foreign conspiracy may be justified in appeasement playbook but it certainly does not qualify for statecraft,” the source said.
Sources, however, seemed keen to insulate bilateral ties from the resentment over Trudeau’s conduct. “Our relations are multi-faceted and will survive the follies of a particular set,” the source said.
