India slams ‘cavalier’ Trudeau in Sikh separatist murder row

NEW DELHI: India slammed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday as “cavalier” over his handling of the disastrous diplomatic fallout following the 2023 killing of a Sikh separatist in Canada.

New Delhi held firm its defiant stance towards Ottawa -- an approach in sharp contrast to its compliant attitude this week towards the United States, where India is also accused of directing a separate assassination plot.

Canada has alleged that India arranged the killing of a Sikh separatist, naturalised Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, murdered in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver in June 2023.

India has called the allegations “preposterous”.

But Trudeau, at a parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday, said Canada had “clear... indications that India had violated Canada´s sovereignty”.

Canada´s top envoy to New Delhi, Stewart Wheeler, who India has ordered to leave by Saturday night, has said Ottawa had provided “credible, irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the Government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen”.

India´s foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal on Thursday said they had not seen that evidence.

“Canada has presented us (India) no evidence whatsoever in support of the serious allegations that it has chosen to level against India and Indian diplomats,” he said in a statement.

“The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behaviour has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau alone.”