Sanjay Kumar Verma NDTV Interview, India-Canada Diplomatic Crisis: How Khalistani Terrorists Influence Indian Students In Canada: Indian Envoy

New Delhi: Indian students in Canada “should be aware of their surrounding” and resist radicalisation attempts by Khalistani terrorists and extremists, Sanjay Kumar Verma, India’s recalled High Commissioner told NDTV Thursday evening. Mr Verma urged the parents of students in Canada to “please talk to them regularly and try to understand” their situation, and to guide them away from unwise choices.

“At this time in Canada there is a threat from Khalistani terrorists and extremists to the larger Indian community… including students (of whom there were around 319,000 as of 2023),” he said.

“How this (Khalistani terrorists’ outreach to Indian students in Canada) works is… given the condition of that economy there are few jobs… so students are offered money and food, and this is how Khalistani terrorists and extremists influence them with nefarious plans” Mr Verma explained to NDTV.

Some students, he said, are also persuaded to take photographs or videos of themselves ‘protesting’ – shouting anti-India slogans or insulting the flag – outside Indian diplomatic buildings in Canada.

“Then they are told to go seek asylum… because their version will be, ‘If I go back to India now, I will be punished…’ and there have been cases of such students being given asylum,” he said.

There are, therefore, various kinds of negative influences acting on Indian students in Canada that are pushing them towards the wrong direction, Mr Verma told NDTV, as he appealed to parents.

Mr Verma’s comments come as the India-Canada diplomatic relationship spirals downward over repeated and unsubstantiated claims by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – that “agents” of Delhi conspire with criminal gangs, including the Lawrence Bishnoi outfit, to “target (the) South Asians” in that country.

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The row broke in September last year after Mr Trudeau claimed “credible allegations” the Indian government was involved in the killing of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen.

Nijjar, branded a terrorist by the Indian government, was shot dead in Vancouver in June 2023.

India has emphatically junked links to his death, rubbishing them as “absurd” and “malicious” and pointing out, repeatedly, that neither Mr Trudeau nor his government have shared any hard evidence.

READ | “Preposterous Imputations”: Trudeau’s Escalation, India’s Strong Rebuttal

Last week India pointed to Mr Trudeau’s confession – before an inquiry commission in Ottawa – that he had no “hard evidentiary proof” when linking the Indian government to the Nijjar murder.

READ | “As We Said, No Evidence Whatsoever”: India On Trudeau’s Deposition

Mr Verma underlined that point to NDTV today, saying “not a shred of evidence” had been shared with him since his appointment as High Commissioner in Canada in September 2022. In fact, Mr Verma said it was India that had shared evidence of extremist groups in Canada, but “no action was taken…”

READ | “We Told Canada About Bishnoi-Brar Links”: Recalled Envoy To NDTV

The crisis that began last year exploded further this month after Canadian federal police linked the Bishnoi gang and identified Mr Verma – India’s senior-most serving diplomat – as a ‘person of interest’ in cases of “homicide, extortion, intimidation, and coercion”. Canada declared it would expel Mr Verma.

READ | Nijjar Killing, Bishnoi Gang, Trade Talks: How India-Canada Ties Soured

New Delhi, furious at Canada’s treatment of Mr Verma, instead recalled him and five of his staff, and retaliated by ejecting Canada’s acting High Commissioner, Stewart Wheeler, and his staff members.

Mr Verma was also made ‘persona non grata‘ – a diplomatic term meaning a ‘person who is no longer welcome’. He becomes the first Indian diplomat to have ever been treated as such.

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