India has decided to withdraw its High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials from Canada, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday. The MEA said the Trudeau government's actions had endangered their safety and that New Delhi has no faith in the current Canadian government's commitment to ensure their security. "Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials."
Earlier today, in a hard-hitting response, India strongly rejected the allegations against its High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma. It described the charges as "preposterous imputations" and ascribes them to the "political agenda of the Trudeau government that is centred around vote bank politics".
The MEA said India received a "diplomatic communication from Canada yesterday suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are 'persons of interest' in a matter related to an investigation in that country". It said India now reserves the right to take further steps in response to these "latest efforts of the Canadian government to concoct allegations against Indian diplomats".
"Since Prime Minister Trudeau made certain allegations in September 2023, the Canadian government has not shared a shred of evidence with the Government of India, despite many requests from our side," the MEA said.
Relations between the two countries have been under strain since September 2023, when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged potential involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a separatist leader, in June 2023 in Surrey, British Columbia. India had previously dismissed the allegations as "absurd."
In its statement, the MEA also made a mention of what it called Prime Minister Trudeau's "naked interference" in Indian internal politics in December 2020, apparently recalling the Canadian leader's comments during the farmers' agitation.
On Canada's latest charges, the MEA said it "leaves little doubt that on the pretext of an investigation, there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains". It said Prime Minister Trudeau's hostility to India has long been in evidence. In 2018, his visit to India, "which was aimed at currying favour with a vote bank, rebounded to his discomfort".
"His Cabinet has included individuals who have openly associated with an extremist and separatist agenda regarding India," the MEA said. "His naked interference in Indian internal politics in December 2020 showed how far he was willing to go in this regard," it said.
"That his Government was dependent on a political party, whose leader openly espouses a separatist ideology vis-Ã -vis India, only aggravated matters," it said. "Under criticism for turning a blind eye to foreign interference in Canadian politics, his government has deliberately brought in India in an attempt to mitigate the damage," the MEA said.
It said this latest development targeting Indian diplomats is now the next step in that direction. "It is no coincidence that it takes place as Prime Minister Trudeau is to depose before a commission on foreign interference," it said.
(With inputs from PTI)