NEW DELHI: India’s foreign ministry said on Saturday that it had lodged a strong protest with Canada for linking India’s home minister to alleged plots against Sikh separatists there and accused Ottawa of spying on Indian consular staff.
“It was conveyed in a note that the government of India protests in the strongest terms to the absurd and baseless references made to the Union Home Minister of India,” said foreign ministry’s spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal at a press conference in New Delhi.
The Washington Post newspaper first reported that Canadian officials alleged Amit Shah, considered the number two in the Modi government, was behind a campaign of violence and intimidation targeting Sikh separatists in Canada.
The Post cited an unnamed senior Canadian official as having said that Shah authorised an intelligence gathering and attacks campaign, including the 2023 killing of Nijjar.
Canadian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison told a parliamentary panel on Tuesday that he was a source for the information, telling the committee: “The journalist called me and asked me if it was that person. I confirmed it was that person.”
Morrison added that he told the US-based newspaper that Shah was behind the plots.
Canada is home to the largest Sikh community outside of India, and includes activists for “Khalistan”, a fringe separatist movement seeking an independent state for the religious minority carved out of Indian territory.
Diplomatic freefall
Jaiswal hit back for New Delhi on Saturday by accusing Canadian officials of deliberately leaking “unfounded insinuations” to the media to “discredit India”.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the national police have in the past said there were “clear indications” of India’s involvement in the murder, as well as a broad campaign of intimidation, violence and other threats against Khalistan activists.
India has repeatedly dismissed the allegations, which have sent diplomatic relations into freefall.
Delhi and Ottawa last month each expelled the other’s ambassador and other senior diplomats.
The day after Morrison spoke, a Canadian spy agency issued a report warning that India was using cyber technology to track Sikh separatists abroad and had also stepped up cyber attacks against Canadian government networks.
