Canada has given political space to extremists: EAM

Jaishankar says the country is allowing people with dubious backgrounds to enter its country

NEW DELHI: By allowing political space to Khalistani separatist elements, the Canadian government is sending a message that its vote bank is “more powerful” than its rule of law, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said.

In an exclusive interview to PTI late Thursday, Jaishankar said India respects and practices freedom of speech, but that does not equate with freedom to threaten foreign diplomats, extend support to separatism or allow political space to elements advocating violence.

The external affairs minister also wondered how people with dubious backgrounds are being allowed to enter and live in Canada, referring to Khalistani supporters among the Sikh migrants from Punjab.

“In any rule-based society, you would imagine that you would check people’s background, how they came, what passports they carried etc,” he said.

“If you have people whose presence there was itself on very dubious documents, what does it say about you? It actually says that your vote-bank actually is more powerful than your rule of law,” he said.

The Indian diaspora in Canada is about 1.8 million strong and there are another one million Non Resident Indians residing in the country. The Indian diaspora, mostly of Sikh ethnicity, is considered an influential bloc in Canada’s politics.

Ties between India and Canada came under severe strain following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations in September last year of the “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar.New Delhi rejected Trudeau’s charges as “absurd”. India has been maintaining that the main issue has been that of Canada giving space to pro-Khalistani elements operating from Canadian soil with impunity.

“It is not so much a question of running out of options. What we have seen to our regret has been the direction of Canadian politics where separatists, extremists forces, many of whom openly advocate violence have been given political space in that country,” Jaishankar said.

“And there are people in posi- tions of prominence today in Canadian politics who actually espouse that kind of separatism and extremism,” he said.

Jaishankar said India cannot overlook the issue for the sake of good relations.

“Whenever we have taken it up with the Canadians, and it is not a new issue -- it has been going on almost for 10 years; they keep saying, ‘oh we have freedom of speech’,” he said.

“We also have freedom of speech in our country. But free- dom of speech does not mean freedom to threaten foreign dip- lomats, freedom of speech does not mean the kind of positions and the kind of activities which people in Canada are doing which does harm to our country because of its support for separa- tism,” he said. “And freedom of speech does not mean this kind of space which is also given to people of various dubious background -- people associated with organised crime and so on,” he said.His remarks came in response to a question on how India plans to deal with challenges emanating from Canada and whether the options for New Delhi are running out.

“We cannot for the sake of good relations overlook that,” he said during the freewheeling interview at PTI’s headquarters.

Freedom of speech does not mean freedom to threaten foreign diplomats. We cannot for the sake of good relations overlook that. S JAISHANKAR, external affairs minister