Canadian PM Trudeau destroyed ties, says Indian envoy

OTTAWA: In a sharp parting shot just before he returned, India's envoy to Canada accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of destroying the ties between the two countries. He asserted 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, Verma said that 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 (Trudeau) did," 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 proof" when he alleged the involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of Nijjar.

" No evidence was presented (by Canada). (This is) politically motivated," the outgoing Indian envoy said when asked if he had anything to do with Nijjar's killing.

"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.

Meanwhile, Cameron MacKay, Canada's most recent envoy to India who left only two months ago, alleged that the US indictment linking a former Indian agent painted a "compelling and detailed portrait" of "a single plot" emanating from Delhi to kill multiple targets across Canada and the US. It was a "a fiasco on the part of the Indian government" to think that it could get away with it, he said.

In an interview to CBC News, MacKay, who left India in August, said both Canada and the US are probing the matter, adding it was "a fiasco on the part of the Indian government" to think that it could carry out crimes in Canada and the US and get away with it.

(With PTI inputs)