Washington: Amid diplomatic row between India and Canada over Ottawa providing space to violent extremists and “evidence” on Nijjar assasination probe, a top US policy expert has taken a dig at the Trudeau government, saying that the Canadian crisis seems to arise whenever Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gets into political trouble and looking at “Canadian evidence and their accusations, we were in JFK conspiracy territory”.
Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum, said India got to stand up for itself and the problem with Canada’s accusations is the same as it was more than a year ago.
“India has got to stand up for itself. The problem with Canada’s accusations today is the same as they were more than a year ago. They’re alighting a lot of the evidence. It seems to be that the Canadian crisis seems to arise whenever Justin Trudeau gets into political trouble. He’s now polling ten per cent behind the opposition leader,” Rubin said.
“When you look at the evidence that the Canadians are citing, there’s not a lot of there and for me as an American, when I read the Canadian evidence and their accusations, we were in JFK conspiracy territory. We were in the territory relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. For example, arguing that the Canadians arguing that the Indians were leveraging organized crime in Canada to do their own dirty work. Look, the complaint of the Indians all along is, why are you blaming us? You have this snowballing organized crime problem, which we’ve been warning you about, and it’s almost like the Canadians are turning around and blaming everything on India, that India warned the Canadians about to try to prevent,” he added.
Decades after US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, unanswered questions have continued to fuel conspiracy theories.
Answering a query about the US raising issue of an alleged plot to kill a Khalistani separatist, Rubin said the Americans recognize the complexity of the issue and it isn’t simply a matter of accusing India for political gain.
Rubin said India’s San Francisco consulate has been attacked twice by Sikh extremists, by Khalistani militants.
“Our take on this is that the Americans realise that there is a nuanced problem. The difference between the Americans and the Canadians, the Canadian seems to be flying by the seat of Justin Trudeau’s pants... The Americans recognize the complexity of the issue. This isn’t simply a matter of accusing India for political gain. Look, the San Francisco consulate has been attacked twice by sikh extremists, by Khalistani militants,” he said.
“The Americans understand at this point that the Khalistani militants are engaged in organized crime and therefore they recognize that not all is as meets the eye. That’s why the Indians seem to also be much more willing to trust the American investigation because the American investigation is much less designed to protect a single Prime Minister and much more designed to get to the heart of the matter,” he added.
India on Monday expelled six Canadian diplomats hours after it summoned Canada’s Charge d’Affaires Stewart Wheeler and conveyed that the “baseless targeting” of the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely unacceptable.
MEA said earlier that it was underlined to the Canada’s Charge d’Affaires that in an atmosphere of extremism and violence, the Trudeau Government’s actions endangered their safety and the government had decided to withdraw India’s High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma and other targeted diplomats and officials.
The Indian government conveyed that India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the “Trudeau Government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India”.
“Canadian Charge d’Affaires was summoned by Secretary (East) this evening. He was informed that the baseless targeting of the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely unacceptable,” the MEA release said.
“It was underlined that in an atmosphere of extremism and violence, the Trudeau Government’s actions endangered their safety. We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials,” it added. (ANI)
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