NEW DELHI: Speaking specifically and directly on the India-Canada row for the first time, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said New Delhi had told Ottawa regarding Khalistan terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing that,”this is not the Government of India’s policy…If you have something specific and if you have something relevant, let us know. We are open to looking at it.”
The minister’s comments come against the backdrop of the US and Canada repeatedly telling India to cooperate in the ongoing probe into Nijjar’s murder.
“The picture is not complete without the context in a way. You also have to appreciate that in the last few years, Canada actually has seen a lot of organised crime, relating to the secessionist forces, violence and extremism. They’re all very, very deeply mixed up.”
Jaishankar was speaking at a think-tank event after speaking during the debate at the UN General Assembly.
Jaishankar said India had given the Canadians “a lot of information about organised crime and leadership, which operates out of Canada. There are a large number of extradition requests. There are terrorist leaders, who have been identified…Our concern is that it’s really been very permissive, because of political reasons. So we have a situation where our diplomats are threatened, our consulates have been attacked.”
“A lot of this is often justified, as saying that’s how democracies work. If somebody gives me something specific, it doesn’t have to be restricted to Canada. But if there’s any incident which is an issue and somebody gives me something specific as a government, I would look at it,” he reiterated.