"Double standard, doglapan...": Indian envoy Sanjay Verma on Canadian agency publishing report tracking Indian journos, media organisaitons

New Delhi [India], October 24 : Recalled Indian High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma on Thursday slammed Canadian authorities for monitoring individual Indian journalists and media after which a dossier was submittied to the foreign interference commission and such acts amounted to "double standard, doglapan".
In an interview with ANI, Sanjay Verma also said the Khalistani extremists and terrorists out of Canada are Canadian citizens and have a lot of political influence there,
He said Canadian authorities should think of differences between their words and deeds.
"If I speak in English this is double standard, If I speak in Hindi this is 'Doglapan'. They should think about the difference between their words and deeds. When an Indian media person spoke something, they told described that it is influence action by 20 people. Why don't they do what they say? Don't we have freedom of expression? Don't our media have freedom? They should think about that. We both are fellow democracies. We both have to keep our relationship good. The relations shouldn't be completely damaged because of a particular regime and government," Verma said.
He was answering a query about Canadian authorities blaming Indian media for deterioration in ties.
Canada's rapid response mechanism (RRM) unit gave a report, titled "Potential Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Following PM Statement on Killing of Hardeep Nijjar". Nijjar was a wanted terrorist in India.
The report alleged posts portraying Canadian diplomats in India in a negative light. It also talked of posts that Canada has historically sheltered terrorist elements of the Khalistan movement.
Speaking of the bilateral ties with Canada, which have taken a sharp downward turn, Verma said it is difficult to say, looking at the present situation, to say that everything will be normal.
"It is very difficult for me looking at the situation now to say that everything will be normal. Because things are not normal. Indo-Canadians are being threatened by the hooligans who are Khalistani goons. They are Khalistani terrorists and extremists. They go to our places of worship and vandalise them. If that is being tolerated by the present system in particular then how can they assure them of normalcy?"he asked.
Answering a query about RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), Verma said it has not lived to its professed reputation of being independent agency as baseless allegations were made against India.
He said RCMP should be independent agency as it is a probe agency.
"But what saw, it does not come out that it is independent. Whoever are their political masters, it listens to them...".
Verma also said it is largely independent organisation and its probes are independent and if a probe is on to catch a culprit, they do not disclose their investigation till arrest is made and all proof is with them but added that this was not followed and India was blamed.
He said Canadian PM made allegations in country's Parliament without evidence and later admitted to it.
"And this was not about an individual but a country. Being careful about my expression as a diplomat, I will say it is not a good thing," the Indian envoy said.
"If you look at the entire episode, and we have always been maintaining that there is no shred of evidence shared with us, I feel it is largely politically motivated and an ill-conceived targeting of India. We are a responsible democracy. We do not have a policy to interfere in the internal affairs of any country," he said.
"The Khalistani extremists and terrorists out of Canada are Canadian citizens. So, they have a lot of political influence there and they have veiled it often. They impress upon various political parties to have their own views. That dependence certainly smells of conspiracy against India. These Khalistani extremists and terrorists are not pro-India but they are also not pro-Canada. They are destroying relations between India and Canada," he added.
He expressed pain at "baseless allegations" levelled against him by Canada.
"It was painful as I had gone there to further improve the ties between the two nations and allegations were levelled against me--that too, such a dirty allegation that might have a bad repute to my country. I don't care about my reputation but no one should slander my country. It feels bad that I was not successful in the work for which I went there but I also feel that if my nation's interests are harmed, then it is my duty to protect my country."
Amid worsening ties between the two countries, India had earlier this month "strongly" rejected a diplomatic communication from Canada suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats were "persons of interest" in an investigation and termed it as "preposterous imputations" and part of the political agenda of the Justin Trudeau government.In a hard-hitting statement, India said Prime Minister Trudeau's hostility to India has long been in evidence and his government has consciously provided space to violent extremists and terrorists "to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada".
India had had expelled six Canadian diplomats hours after it summoned Canada's Charge d'Affaires Stewart Wheeler and conveyed that the "baseless targeting" of the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely unacceptable.
India underlined that in an atmosphere of extremism and violence, the Trudeau Government's actions endangered their safety.
"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," MEA said in a release.
The ties between India and Canada soured after Trudeau alleged in the Canadian Parliament last year that he has "credible allegations" of India's hand in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.India has denied all the allegations, calling them "absurd" and "motivated" and has accused Canada of giving space to extremist and anti-India elements in their country.Nijjar, who was designated a terrorist by India's National Investigation Agency in 2020, was shot and killed outside a Gurdwara in Surrey in June last year.
Trudeau had said earlier this month that his government had not provided India with hard evidence but just intelligence regarding the killing of Nijjar on Canadian soil.Testifying at Canada's foreign interference inquiry, Trudeau said India has been insisting on evidence over allegations levelled by Canada.
"Behind the scenes (were trying) 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...," he said.