India slams Justin Trudeau’s comments on ‘One India’ policy, calls out ‘gap between action and words’

India’s Ministry of External Affairs criticised Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his support of the ‘One India’ policy, pointing out a “discrepancy between his words and actions” on Thursday (Oct 17).

Appearing before the Foreign Interference Commission on Wednesday, Trudeau alleged that Indian officials had been collecting information about Canadians and sharing it with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. He further stated that his government supports the ‘One India’ policy.

Responding to these comments, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that India had previously requested the arrest and extradition of several members of the gang from Canada, but Ottawa had not addressed New Delhi’s concerns.

“So we have seen those comments of Prime Minister Trudeau that he believes in one India policy. But so far, the actions that we have requested are against anti-India elements who actually go against one India, who call for dismemberment and disunity of the country, who espouse separatist ideology. No action has been taken,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.

“So you know in a sense there is a difference. There is a gap between action and words here,” he added.

On the diplomatic dispute, the MEA also mentioned that India had summoned Canada’s acting High Commissioner and raised concerns about the safety of Indian diplomats.

“We had summoned the acting High Commissioner of Canada and thereafter conveyed that we had no faith that the Canadian government would look after the safety of our diplomats and therefore we had taken a decision to withdraw our High Commissioner and along with him 5 other diplomats. After that, there was a communication from Canadian side asking them to leave but we had withdrawn our diplomats before their decision,” explained Jaiswal.

On Wednesday, Trudeau admitted that his government had not provided India with any concrete evidence linking Indian agents to Nijjar’s murder.

“Behind the scenes (we were trying to make) India to co-operate with us. Their ask was…give us the evidence you have on us. Our response was it is within your security agency. You should be looking into how much they know, you should be engaging… ‘No, no but show us the evidence’. At that point, it was primarily intelligence, not hard evidentiary proof. So we said let’s work together…” Trudeau said.

Reacting strongly to this admission, the MEA on late Wednesday accused Trudeau of harming relations between India and Canada through his “reckless behaviour.”

“What we have heard today only confirms what we have been saying consistently all along – Canada has presented us no evidence whatsoever in support of the serious allegations that it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats,” said the MEA in a statement.

Tensions between India and Canada have escalated after Ottawa informed New Delhi that senior Indian diplomats were “persons of interest” in the investigation related to the murder of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. In response to this serious claim, India expelled six Canadian diplomats and called back its officials from Canada.

(With inputs from agencies)