‘No evidence’: MEA says Trudeau’s baseless claims damaged India-Canada ties

New Delhi: As Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified before a Commission of Inquiry, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday stated that his remarks only "confirm" New Delhi's longstanding position—that Canada has provided "no evidence" to back the serious allegations it made against India and its diplomats. On Wednesday, Trudeau admitted that his claims of Indian government involvement in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year were based on intelligence, lacking any "hard evidentiary proof," reported PTI.

The MEA issued a statement in the early hours of Thursday in response to media queries related to Trudeau's deposition, some of whose details were revealed in media reports.

"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," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement. The ministry further said, "The responsibility for the damage that this cavalier behaviour has caused to India-Canada relations lies with Prime Minister Trudeau alone."

Testifying before the public inquiry into foreign interference in federal electoral processes and democratic institutions, Trudeau claimed the Indian diplomats were collecting information on Canadians who are in disagreement with the Narendra Modi government and passing it to the highest levels within the Indian government and criminal organisations like the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. India strongly rejected attempts by the Canadian authorities to link Indian agents with criminal gangs in Canada with official sources in New Delhi, even saying that Ottawa's assertion that it shared evidence with New Delhi in the Nijjar case was simply not true.

Sources in New Delhi also rejected Trudeau's previous allegations that India was engaging in activities, including carrying out covert operations targeting Canadian nationals in his country. India earlier on Monday expelled six Canadian diplomats and also announced withdrawing its high commissioner from Canada after dismissing Ottawa's allegations linking the envoy to a probe into the killing of Nijjar.

The escalation in diplomatic row between India and Canada is a major downturn in already frosty ties between the two nations. The relations between the two countries came under severe strain following Trudeau's allegations in September last year of a potential involvement of Indian agents in Nijjar's killing. New Delhi rejected Trudeau's charges as absurd.

India has been maintaining that the main issue between the two countries is that of Canada giving space to pro-Khalistan elements operating from Canadian soil with impunity. Nijjar, who was declared a terrorist by India, was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18 last year.