New Delhi:

Indian students in Canada “should be aware of their surrounding” and resist radicalisation attempts by Khalistani terrorists and extremists, Sanjay Kumar Verma, India’s recalled High Commissioner told NDTV Thursday evening. Mr Verma urged the parents of students in Canada to “please talk to them regularly and try to understand” their situation, and to guide them away from unwise choices.

“At this time in Canada there is a threat from Khalistani terrorists and extremists to the larger Indian community… including students (of whom there were around 319,000 as of 2023),” he said.

“How this (Khalistani terrorists’ outreach to Indian students in Canada) works is… given the condition of that economy there are few jobs… so students are offered money and food, and this is how Khalistani terrorists and extremists influence them with nefarious plans” Mr Verma explained to NDTV.

Some students, he said, are also persuaded to take photographs or videos of themselves ‘protesting’ – shouting anti-India slogans or insulting the flag – outside Indian diplomatic buildings in Canada.

“Then they are told to go seek asylum… because their version will be, ‘If I go back to India now, I will be punished…’ and there have been cases of such students being given asylum,” he said.

There are, therefore, various kinds of negative influences acting on Indian students in Canada that are pushing them towards the wrong direction, Mr Verma told NDTV, as he appealed to parents.

Mr Verma’s comments come as the India-Canada diplomatic relationship spirals downward over repeated and unsubstantiated claims by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – that “agents” of Delhi conspire with criminal gangs, including the Lawrence Bishnoi outfit, to “target (the) South Asians” in that country.

READ | “Bishnoi Gang Linked To Indian Govt Agents”: Canada Cops’ Claim

The row broke in September last year after Mr Trudeau claimed “credible allegations” the Indian government was involved in the killing of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen.

Nijjar, branded a terrorist by the Indian government, was shot dead in Vancouver in June 2023.

India has emphatically junked links to his death, rubbishing them as “absurd” and “malicious” and pointing out, repeatedly, that neither Mr Trudeau nor his government have shared any hard evidence.

READ | “Preposterous Imputations”: Trudeau’s Escalation, India’s Strong Rebuttal

Last week India pointed to Mr Trudeau’s confession – before an inquiry commission in Ottawa – that he had no “hard evidentiary proof” when linking the Indian government to the Nijjar murder.

READ | “As We Said, No Evidence Whatsoever”: India On Trudeau’s Deposition

Mr Verma underlined that point to NDTV today, saying “not a shred of evidence” had been shared with him since his appointment as High Commissioner in Canada in September 2022. In fact, Mr Verma said it was India that had shared evidence of extremist groups in Canada, but “no action was taken…”

READ | “We Told Canada About Bishnoi-Brar Links”: Recalled Envoy To NDTV

The crisis that began last year exploded further this month after Canadian federal police linked the Bishnoi gang and identified Mr Verma – India’s senior-most serving diplomat – as a ‘person of interest’ in cases of “homicide, extortion, intimidation, and coercion”. Canada declared it would expel Mr Verma.

READ | Nijjar Killing, Bishnoi Gang, Trade Talks: How India-Canada Ties Soured

New Delhi, furious at Canada’s treatment of Mr Verma, instead recalled him and five of his staff, and retaliated by ejecting Canada’s acting High Commissioner, Stewart Wheeler, and his staff members.

Mr Verma was also made ‘persona non grata‘ – a diplomatic term meaning a ‘person who is no longer welcome’. He becomes the first Indian diplomat to have ever been treated as such.

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.

New Delhi:

Indian students in Canada “should be aware of their surrounding” and resist radicalisation attempts by Khalistani terrorists and extremists, Sanjay Kumar Verma, India’s recalled High Commissioner told NDTV Thursday evening. Mr Verma urged the parents of students in Canada to “please talk to them regularly and try to understand” their situation, and to guide them away from unwise choices.

“At this time in Canada there is a threat from Khalistani terrorists and extremists to the larger Indian community… including students (of whom there were around 319,000 as of 2023),” he said.

“How this (Khalistani terrorists’ outreach to Indian students in Canada) works is… given the condition of that economy there are few jobs… so students are offered money and food, and this is how Khalistani terrorists and extremists influence them with nefarious plans” Mr Verma explained to NDTV.

Some students, he said, are also persuaded to take photographs or videos of themselves ‘protesting’ – shouting anti-India slogans or insulting the flag – outside Indian diplomatic buildings in Canada.

“Then they are told to go seek asylum… because their version will be, ‘If I go back to India now, I will be punished…’ and there have been cases of such students being given asylum,” he said.

There are, therefore, various kinds of negative influences acting on Indian students in Canada that are pushing them towards the wrong direction, Mr Verma told NDTV, as he appealed to parents.

Mr Verma’s comments come as the India-Canada diplomatic relationship spirals downward over repeated and unsubstantiated claims by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – that “agents” of Delhi conspire with criminal gangs, including the Lawrence Bishnoi outfit, to “target (the) South Asians” in that country.

READ | “Bishnoi Gang Linked To Indian Govt Agents”: Canada Cops’ Claim

The row broke in September last year after Mr Trudeau claimed “credible allegations” the Indian government was involved in the killing of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen.

Nijjar, branded a terrorist by the Indian government, was shot dead in Vancouver in June 2023.

India has emphatically junked links to his death, rubbishing them as “absurd” and “malicious” and pointing out, repeatedly, that neither Mr Trudeau nor his government have shared any hard evidence.

READ | “Preposterous Imputations”: Trudeau’s Escalation, India’s Strong Rebuttal

Last week India pointed to Mr Trudeau’s confession – before an inquiry commission in Ottawa – that he had no “hard evidentiary proof” when linking the Indian government to the Nijjar murder.

READ | “As We Said, No Evidence Whatsoever”: India On Trudeau’s Deposition

Mr Verma underlined that point to NDTV today, saying “not a shred of evidence” had been shared with him since his appointment as High Commissioner in Canada in September 2022. In fact, Mr Verma said it was India that had shared evidence of extremist groups in Canada, but “no action was taken…”

READ | “We Told Canada About Bishnoi-Brar Links”: Recalled Envoy To NDTV

The crisis that began last year exploded further this month after Canadian federal police linked the Bishnoi gang and identified Mr Verma – India’s senior-most serving diplomat – as a ‘person of interest’ in cases of “homicide, extortion, intimidation, and coercion”. Canada declared it would expel Mr Verma.

READ | Nijjar Killing, Bishnoi Gang, Trade Talks: How India-Canada Ties Soured

New Delhi, furious at Canada’s treatment of Mr Verma, instead recalled him and five of his staff, and retaliated by ejecting Canada’s acting High Commissioner, Stewart Wheeler, and his staff members.

Mr Verma was also made ‘persona non grata‘ – a diplomatic term meaning a ‘person who is no longer welcome’. He becomes the first Indian diplomat to have ever been treated as such.

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.

New Delhi:

Recalled Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma in an exclusive interview to NDTV today minced no words in strongly criticising Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for sheltering Khalistani terrorists and gangs.

India withdrew Mr Verma from Canada after the Trudeau government linked him and some other Indian diplomats to the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, and named the Indian envoy as a “person of interest” in the case.

“Canada has failed to limit hate speech by Khalistanis against India. Hate speech cannot be encouraged in the name of freedom of speech,” Mr Verma told NDTV.

He said Canada’s inaction against Khalistanis despite India’s repeated requests and information sharing has “emboldened the extremists.”

“The allegations made by the Trudeau government against India are bizarre. We have told them about the links between Goldy Brar and Lawrence Bishnoi. Goldy Brar openly runs extortion rackets in Canada,” Mr Verma told NDTV. “He is the kingpin of all extortion rackets in Canada and some in Punjab,” he added.

“Khalistanis run a business in Canada. They are into extortion. They use the money to live a lavish life and work against India,” he said.

He said India had also strongly objected to Mr Trudeau inviting Khalistanis at events in Canada.

Canada sheltering Khalistanis has a political angle to it, Mr Verma said, alluding to Mr Trudeau’s inaction against the terrorists.

India had slammed Canada for its disrespectful behaviour towards the recalled envoy – India’s senior-most serving diplomat with a distinguished career spanning 36 years. “… The aspersions cast on him by the government of Canada are ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said.

The 2023 murder of Nijjar crashed diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Ottawa after Mr Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence to the crime. India, which had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020, has dismissed the charges as “absurd”.

At the NDTV World Summit in Delhi earlier this week, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had indicated that there would be some resistance from and churning in the West as India and other emerging economies grow. “It is not going to be smooth,” Mr Jaishankar had said, in what was seen as alluding to Canada’s behaviour towards India.

The West has to accept that changes and a rebalancing is happening in the global order which the West has got used to for a long time, he said.

High Commissioner of India to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

India’s envoy to Canada has accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of destroying the ties between the two countries, asserting that he had nothing to do with the killing of a Khalistani separatist and that the charges against him are “politically motivated”.

India recently expelled six Canadian diplomats and announced that it was withdrawing its High Commissioner in Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma after dismissing Ottawa’s allegations linking the envoy to the probe into the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Canada, however, said it had expelled six Indian diplomats.

In an interview with Canada’s private broadcaster CTV News aired on Sunday (October 20, 2024), Mr. Verma said that Mr. Trudeau’s allegations over Nijjar’s killing were based on intelligence inputs rather than concrete evidence.

“The problem is that when he accused, he himself admitted there was no hard evidence. There was intelligence. On the basis of intelligence, if you want to destroy a relationship, be my guest. And that’s what he (Mr. Trudeau) did,” Mr. Verma said.

Testifying before the public inquiry into foreign interference in federal electoral processes and democratic institutions last week, Trudeau admitted that he had only intelligence and no “hard evidentiary proof” when he alleged the involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of Nijjar.

“Nothing at all. No evidence was presented (by Canada). (This is) politically motivated,” the outgoing Indian envoy said when asked by the anchor if he had anything to do with Nijjar’s killing.

Nijjar, who was declared a terrorist by India, was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18 last year.

The Indian diplomat said 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’,” he said, referring to Trudeau’s address in the Canadian Parliament in September last year when he alleged involvement of Indian government’s agents in the killing of Nijjar.

“And the day on which he did that, since then, he has made it sure that the bilateral relation with India only goes downwards, spiralling down,” the diplomat said.

The relations between the two countries came under severe strain following Trudeau’s allegations in September last year of a “potential” involvement of Indian agents in Nijjar’s killing.

New Delhi rejected MR. Trudeau’s charges as “absurd”.

India has been maintaining that the main issue between the two countries is that of Canada giving space to pro-Khalistan elements operating from Canadian soil with impunity.

India has strongly rejected attempts by Canadian authorities to link Indian agents with criminal gangs in Canada with official sources in New Delhi even saying that Ottawa’s assertion that it shared evidence with New Delhi in the Nijjar case was simply not true.

Indian High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma. Photo: www.hciottawa.gov.in

Amidst the diplomatic strain in India-Canada relations, India’s envoy here has warned that the Sikh separatist groups in Canada were crossing “a big red line” that New Delhi sees as a matter of national security and of the country’s territorial integrity.

Indian High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma said this on May 7 in his first public remarks since three Indian nationals accused of killing Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year were arrested and produced before a court by Canadian police.

Mr. Verma seemed to link the case to domestic crime, CTV News reported.

He also warned that Sikh groups in Canada who call for the separation of their homeland from India are crossing “a big red line” that New Delhi sees as a matter of national security.

“Indians will decide the fate of India, not the foreigners,” Mr. Verma told the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, a prominent think-tank.

He also told the Council that relations between India and Canada are positive overall despite “a lot of noise”.

Mr. Verma also said that the two countries are “trying to resolve this issue”. “We are ready to sit down at the table any day, and we are doing that,” he said.

Mr. Verma said the deeper problems underneath the recent “negative” developments have to do with Canada’s misunderstanding of “decades-old issues,” which he blames Canadians of Indian origin for resurfacing.

He said his chief concern is “national-security threats emanating from the land of Canada”, noting that India does not recognise dual nationality, so anyone who emigrates is considered a foreigner.

“Foreigners having, if I can call it, [an] evil eye on the territorial integrity of India — that is a big red line for us,” he said.

He did not specify whether he was referring to foreigners being involved in the Nijjar case or the issue of Sikh separatism more broadly, the report said.

On May 7, India told Canada that celebration and glorification of violence should not be a part of any civilised society. Democratic countries which respect the rule of law should not allow intimidation by radical elements in the name of freedom of expression.

“We continue to remain concerned about the security of our diplomatic representatives in Canada and expect the Government of Canada to ensure that they are able to carry out their responsibilities without fear,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement in response to the violent imagery being used by extremist elements in Canada against India’s political leadership.

“We again call upon the Government of Canada to stop providing criminal and secessionist elements a safe haven and political space in Canada,” the MEA spokesperson said in New Delhi.

Earlier on May 7, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly stood by allegations that the Indian government was complicit in the slaying of Nijjar last year.

Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Surrey on June 18, 2023.

The killing sparked a wave of protests, with some Sikh groups circulating posters that threatened Indian diplomats in Canada by name.

Ms. Joly said her goal is still to conduct diplomacy with India in private.

She said she would let the police investigate instead of providing any new commentary on the case.

“We stand by the allegations that a Canadian was killed on Canadian soil by Indian agents,” Ms. Joly said on Parliament Hill.

“The investigation by the RCMP is being done. I won’t further comment and no other officials from our government will further comment,” she said, referring to the ongoing probe by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

Meanwhile, Mr. Verma also mentioned “so many positive things” happening in the relationship between India and Canada.

He noted the annual value of two-way trade is 26 billion Canadian dollars, and in the past 11 months, there has been a 75% jump in Canadian lentil exports and a 21% increase in Indian-prepared medicines reaching Canada.

On May 7, the group Sikhs for Justice called for Mr. Verma’s speech to be cancelled, citing the Nijjar case and allegations of foreign interference by India.

Ottawa:

India’s High Commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma on Tuesday said that the origin of the friction between New Delhi and Ottawa is the “lack of understanding of India’s concern” over a “decades-old issue (Khalistan) that has re-emerged” on foreign soil.

Speaking at an event at the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, he added that it was “a big red line” for India.

Terming the pro-Khalistan extremists in Canada as foreigners since they hold Canadian citizenship as India doesn’t allow dual citizenship, Mr Verma said, “The foreigners having an evil eye on the territorial integrity of India. That is a big red line for India. Indians will decide the fate of India, not foreigners. If those Indians that are living abroad want to decide the fate of India, then they better go back and participate in the election process in India.”

Meanwhile, the three Indian nationals arrested last week in connection with the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar appeared before the Surrey Provincial Court in British Columbia. Karanpreet Singh, Kamalpreet Singh and Karan Brar were arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Edmonton and have been charged with murder and conspiracy to murder.

Back in Montreal, the high commissioner also pointed out that while the negative in the relationship grabs the headlines, there are many positives to the relationship – the most important one being trade. High Commissioner Verma said, “Trade has been going up despite political divergences.”

He pointed out how Canada has benefitted hugely from services exports to India, a country that itself is big in the services sector. He said Canada was one of the few countries that exports more services to India than it imports. Services exports to India drove up Canada’s overall exports in 2022.  The overall trade in services between India and Canada was over USD 9 billion a total trade figure of almost USD 19 billion.

India’s largest import from Canada is coal briquettes – close to USD 850 million last year. This has declined over the last few years due to India exploring alternative sources of energy to eliminate dependency on fossil fuels. This is followed by the import of lentils largely from the province of Saskatchewan in Canada and followed by a huge import of diamonds.

India’s largest export to Canada is medicines, followed by shrimps and smartphones. Basmati rice exports from India to Canada went up by 14 per cent over the last year.