"They might have got a bit irritated that this guy is not flabbergasted," Recalled Indian envoy on being declared person of interest by Canada

New Delhi [India], October 25 : Recalled Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Verma on Friday in an exclusive conversation with ANI said that the Canadian officials were perhaps irritated as he wasn't "flabbergasted" on receiving the news of him being declared a person of interest by them in connection with slain Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar, designated a terrorist by India's National Investigation Agency in 2020, was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Surrey, Canada in June 2023.
Explaining the term 'called back', Verma said that the term means that India has called him back for any reason. "So this means that my country has decided to call me back here for any reason. And the reason can be for security reasons. The reason can be that I am not doing a good job. This can also be the reason. They don't need to explain to everybody," he said.
Recounting the events of October 12, the day when he was declared by Canada the "person of interest for interrogation in case of Nijjar's killing", Verma said that he was called to the Canadian foreign ministry and handed over the "sealed envelope" stating the same, and he returned, "straight face."
"So what happened, I'll just run you through the chronology. So on October 12, which was a Sunday, my deputy high commissioner and I went to their foreign ministry, which is known as Global Affairs Canada, (GSC), at around 10 o'clock in the morning. And then they talked a bit and then they handed over to us a sealed envelope saying that, you know, there is a note in this and you and five other colleagues of yours are persons of interest for interrogation in case of Nijjar's killing. I came back, straight face," he said.
Verma said that after he informed about this to the MEA office in Delhi, they gave a dressing down to the Canadian acting High Commissioner regarding the issue.
"They might have got a bit irritated that this guy is not flabbergasted. Came back, and informed Delhi. Then Delhi called their acting high commissioner in New Delhi, the Canadian acting commissioner. Because the Canadian high commissioner had already left... So it was an acting high commissioner. So he came with one of his colleagues, deputy high commissioner. And the senior most official in the Ministry of External Affairs who deals with Canada, he told him that, look, we have received this, it is very unsavoury," he said.
Verma said that after India withdrew him and his deputies, Canada declared them persona non-grata, which meant that after October 19, they would have lost their diplomatic immunity.
"This is something which breaks all the trust between the two of us. And therefore, we are calling back and withdrawing our high commissioner and five others whom you have named that person of interest. So he might have reported back to the headquarters. All of us do that. Then they decided that, okay, India has withdrawn you, but we will declare you persona non grata. So we were declared persona non grata, all six of us, given a time deadline of October 19, 11:59 pm to leave the country. Otherwise, our diplomatic community will be no more valid. So this is the whole chronology. So technically speaking, I am withdrawn, I am called back. Some people call it recall as well. So I am one of these. But the Canadian government has the prerogative to declare me persona non grata at any point in time with their pleasure. And they did so. But they did so after we had already withdrawn ourselves," he said.
Verma said that he did not receive any warning about him being declared as a person of interest even though he was given protection by the Canadian Police.
"I had no warning. I was never alerted that they were looking at me as well. Though I had RCMP officers as close protection with me and they might have been relaying all the movements to my friends, I can assure them that none of my movement was suspicious. So I had nothing to fear and then when they declare person of interest, what they basically mean is that one will have to submit oneself to the federal policing, in this case known as Royal Canadian Mountain Police (RCMP), who will then ask questions to me in connection with a certain episode which they think as crime. And then I have to respond to that under oath. So in this case, it was related to the crime that was committed on Canadian soil, which is the killing of Nijjar," he said.
Verma said that the diplomatic note given to him "only talked about the dreaded terrorist Niger's killing."
"So the diplomatic note only talked about this dreaded terrorist Niger's killing. Other things came in a press conference...Terrorist Nijjar, Militant Nijjar, Separatist Nijjar. It was Canadian Nijjar. They didn't mention Canadian. But Canadian citizens. Canadian citizens killed on the Canadian soil. So their designation is different than our designation and that's fine. I will not take that otherwise. And thereafter they said that my diplomatic immunity and that of my colleagues should be waived so that I can be interrogated. Now, ideally, they should have shared the evidence with me for what I'm being investigated. What is the evidence that they have? So that even as a normal citizen, anyone could go and then defend himself or herself. In this case, I was the ranking representative of Vindhya there. So it's a bad diplomatic practice," he said.
Verma said that such an occurrence has never happened before.
"Even with our bordering neighbor, Pakistan, it has never happened. Even during the Cold War, they did not resort to declaring each other's ambassadors as personal... So as far as my recollection goes, this has happened for the first time in the history of Indian diplomacy that an Indian ambassador has been declared persona non grata by another, in this case, a friendly country. So they obviously think that it is serious enough to declare you PNG and ask you to leave within a few days," he said.
Verma said that Canada is a very welcoming country, but their leaders "haven't realised"that India has "arrived at the world stage", they still have "some illusions."
"Canada is a very welcoming country. It's a beautiful country. I have so many friends there, so many beautiful memories. But unfortunately, a group of people who are heading the country at the moment, have some illusions about India still not arrived at the world stage without realizing we are the fifth largest economy in the world, moving on to becoming the fourth and third very soon. Without realizing we are the largest democracy in the world, without realizing we are the most populous country in the world, without realizing that Amritkal, by 2047, we will be a USD 30 trillion plus economy. So you look at from whichever angle, they should have realized that they're talking to a country which is at least equal," he said.
Verma said that the Canadian media should be sensitive to India, since botht the countries are a democracy, and yet they chose this path.
"They know that we are a democracy. We've had people-to-people contact. We've had their prime ministers, several prime ministers come to our country. They've seen that we have judiciary, we have legislature, we have executive, we have a media, a robust media, and we have a robust social media presence. They know all that."
Verma also talked about his interview to Canada-based CTV News, during which he accused the Canadian government of "encouraging" Khalistani extremists.
Verma said that he was at pain to explain that India follows rule of law, adding that Canada may be weighing political considerations in its approach to Khalistani elements and termed it as a 'domestic vote bank.'
"You know, sometimes it is politically motivated, which we have been saying a lot recently. This is for probably their local vote bank. But again, I don't want to get into the domestic internal affairs of a country. I'm not needed to go there. But I haven't seen the kind of sensitivity which should be there for a partner country. We are a partner country. Both of us democracies. Both of us are members of Commonwealth. Both of us are members of G20. So, you know, we are partner countries in many sense. And then instead of sort of standing with each other, Canada chose this path," he said.
Earlier on Monday, in an interview to Canada-based CTV News, Ambassador Verma, accused the Canadian government of "encouraging" Khalistani extremists.
"Khalistani extremists are being encouraged all the time. This is my allegation, I also know that some of these Khalistani extremists and terrorists are deep assets of CSIS, again I'm not giving any evidence," the Ambassador had said.
The ties between India and Canada soured after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a parliamentary address last year, claimed that he has "credible allegations" of India's hand in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
India strongly denied the allegations, calling them "absurd" and "motivated." It also accused Canada of giving space to extremist and anti-India elements in their country.