Hope PM will take Opp into confidence on worsening India-Canada ties: Cong

The Congress on Monday, 14 October, said it expects Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take the Leader of Opposition in both Houses of Parliament and the leaders of other parties into confidence on the "extremely sensitive and delicate issue" of worsening India-Canada relations.

The opposition party's remarks came as India announced expelling six Canadian diplomats, hours after recalling the Indian high commissioner and some other officials from Canada.

The Canadian diplomats have been asked to leave India by or before 11:59 pm on 19 October.

India's decision came shortly after Canadian Charge d'Affaires Stewart Wheelers was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and was told bluntly that the baseless "targeting" of High Commissioner Sanjay Verma and other diplomats and linking them to an investigation into the killing of Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was "completely unacceptable".

In a post on X, Congress general secretary (in-charge, communications) Jairam Ramesh said, "The Indian National Congress certainly hopes and expects that Prime Minister @narendramodi will take the leader of Opposition in both Houses of Parliament, and the leaders of other political parties into confidence immediately on the extremely sensitive and delicate issue of worsening India-Canada relations.

While Rahul Gandhi is the leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is the LoP in the Rajya Sabha.

New Delhi has described the charges against Verma as "concocted" and "preposterous imputations" and ascribes the allegations 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".

The Canadian Charge d'Affaires (CDA) was summoned by MEA's secretary (east) Jaideep Mazumdar and it was underlined to him that in an atmosphere of extremism and violence, the Trudeau government's actions "endangered" the safety of Indian diplomats and other officials.

"We have 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," the MEA said in a statement.

"It was also conveyed that India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau government's support for extremism, violence and separatism against India," it said.

The relations between India and Canada came under severe strain following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations in September 2023 of a "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar.

Nijjar was gunned down in Surrey, British Columbia, in June last year. New Delhi had rejected Trudeau's charges as "absurd".