External affairs minister S. Jaishankar on Tuesday said India was open to looking at specific and relevant information, if any country, including Canada, furnished it but refused to be button-holed into giving a “yes or no” answer to a question on whether Ottawa had shared the purported intercepted communications involving Indian diplomats.
At an interactive session of the Washington-based think tank Council on Foreign Relations with former US ambassador to India Ken Juster as the moderator, Jaishankar was responding to questions associated with the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.
Till Tuesday, the otherwise outspoken minister had not said a word on the controversy since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in the House of Commons a week ago that there appeared to be an Indian hand in the murder of Nijjar in June, sending bilateral relations on a downward trajectory.
With several Western countries, including the US, caught in the middle of the India-Canada spat, it was a recurrent subject on which the minister was questioned during the hour-long session. Maintaining that India would look at any relevant information, his response to a specific question on whether Canada had shared with him the purported intercepted communications involving Indian diplomats was “I have said that if somebody gives us specific or relevant information, we are prepared to look at it”.
When the reporter asked again if he had received those intercepted communications, Jaishankar shot back: “If I had, would I not be looking at it?”
The reporter persisted and said: “I’m asking you if ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”
Juster stepped in, saying the minister had already answered.
Jaishankar also avoided commenting on the statement of the US ambassador to Canada that Trudeau’s allegations were based on the information shared within the Five Eyes intelligence alliance of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Likewise with a question on a report from California that the FBI had warned Sikh activists of credible threats to their lives after Nijjar’s killing.
Canada was first brought up by Juster himself who wanted to know if the minister had any comments on Trudeau’s allegations of an Indian government hand in Nijjar’s murder and whether the government of India would cooperate if provided specific information.
To the question on cooperating with the probe, the minister replied: “If somebody gives me something specific, doesn’t have to be restricted to Canada, but if there’s any incident which is an issue and somebody gives me something specific as a government I would look at it. Of course, I would look at it….”
On the allegation itself, Jaishankar said: “I will share with you very frankly what we told the Canadians. One, we told the Canadians this is not the Government of India’s policy. Two, we told the Canadians… ‘look if you have something specific and relevant, let us know. We are open to looking at it’.”
He went on to provide context, saying the picture would be incomplete without it. “You also have to appreciate that in the last few years Canada actually has seen a lot of organised crime relating to secessionist forces, organised crime, violence, extremism — they are all very very deeply mixed up. In fact, we have been talking about specifics and information. We have actually been badgering the Canadians, we have given them a lot of information about organised crime leadership which operates out of Canada. There are a large number of extradition requests. There are terrorist leaders who have been identified.’’
“Do understand that there is an environment out there. That is important in a way to factor in if you have to understand what is going on out there. Our concern is that it has really been very permissive because of political reasons. We have a situation where actually our diplomats are threatened, our consulates have been attacked....”
