‘Ties won’t be hit by Ontario motion’
The India-Canada relationship is resilient enough not to be affected by a motion passed by the Ontario Assembly describing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as “genocide”, Canadian high commissioner Nadir Patel said on Thursday.
Patel said the private member’s motion in Ontario and PM Justin Trudeau’s presence at an event in Toronto that featured Khalistani flags should be seen in perspective.
“The Canada-India relationship is far more resilient to be sidetracked by a private member’s resolution that was voted for by 35 members in a provincial assembly,” Patel told Hindustan Times.
“We appreciate and respect India’s concerns and we don’t downplay them…If any information suggests wrong-doing, we will act on it,” he said.
“Trudeau attending the Khalsa Day celebrations is just that. If somebody shows up with signs but no laws are being broken, there’s nothing we can do. The PM attending the event doesn’t mean the government is a supporter of breaking up India,” he said.
Bilateral ties have not been affected by controversies in recent years but the recent developments had angered New Delhi. The external affairs ministry described the motion in the Ontario Assembly as “misguided” and “based on a limited understanding of India”.
Trudeau’s presence at the Khalsa Day event featuring Khalistani flags and posters of extremist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale had caused consternation in New Delhi and an Indian official described it as “surely a matter of concern”.
But Patel pointed out that the vast majority of the Indian-origin community in Canada was “peace-loving and had made significant contributions to bilateral relations”.
He also pointed to the healthy state of bilateral exchanges, with eight Canadian cabinet ministers visiting India in nine months to take forward cooperation in areas ranging from trade and investment to education.
Bilateral trade, currently worth about $8 billion, increased by almost 30% in the past two years and Canadian investment in India has grown during the same period years.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday attached assets worth ₹21 crore of defence consultant Sanjay Bhandari in connection with a money laundering case.
The directorate in a press statement said the case was the first ever to be investigated by ED under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for offences under Black Money Act.
“This is the first case of issuance of attachment order where the scheduled offence is Black Money Act. The provisions of PMLA allow for attachment of properties in India equivalent to the undisclosed assets outside the country of a person accused of offences under Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015,” ED said in a statement. Previously, the Income Tax department had booked Bhandari under the new act.
“The investigation revealed that Sanjay had acquired assets worth more than ₹150 crore outside India, which were not declared for taxation purposes before the Income Tax authorities,” ED said.