India Canada Row: India will take a tough stand towards Canada, Jaishankar gave the message bluntly

New Delhi : External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Saturday criticized Canada for targeting the Indian High Commissioner and diplomats on behalf of the Justin Trudeau government. Jaishankar said that we completely reject the way the Canadian government is targeting our High Commissioner and diplomats. The External Affairs Minister was speaking at an event on ‘Emerging Opportunities in the Current Global Scenario’ in Pune.

tough stance against canada

Jaishankar said India will clearly take the firm stand that it has taken with respect to its national interest, integrity and sovereignty. On October 13, Canadian officials had declared Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Verma a ‘person of interest’ in the investigation into the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Condemning Canada’s action, India recalled its High Commissioner.

India’s action on Canada

Also, in retaliation, six Canadian diplomats were asked to leave the country. Later, Sanjay Verma, the former High Commissioner of India to Canada, described this behavior of the Canadian government as extremely poor. he/she said that a country which we consider a friendly democratic country has stabbed India in the back and adopted the most unprofessional attitude. If they believe that this is a broader relationship for them as well, the diplomat has other diplomatic tools. These means could have been used to find a satisfactory solution to things.

Comment on Canadian politics

Regarding Canada, Jaishankar said that the issue is that there are people from the minority community there, but they have made themselves a big political voice. he/she said that unfortunately, the politics of that country is giving some degree of activism to that political lobby, which I would say is bad not only for us and our relations. I would say it’s bad for Canada too.

‘We were telling them…they weren’t listening’

Jaishankar said India was the first to raise the issue of the presence of organized crime in the North American country, but the concerns were ignored. he/she said we were telling them and they weren’t listening. This has been happening because of the permissive environment for a long time. Jaishankar said, I think this is an issue of a particular political phase or group of political forces. We would certainly hope that the wiser, the more sober, the more responsible would establish themselves.