Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was reluctant to accuse India of involvement in the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, but went ahead with the statement in parliament anyway since a court trial would have made the case public anyway, senior Indian-American journalist Fareed Zakaria told News18 in an interview.
Speaking to News18, Zakaria said the Trudeau government might be regretting the way the issue unfolded since Ottawa wants cordial ties with New Delhi.
“My own view is that Trudeau was reluctant to do this and did it reluctantly knowing it would cause a firestorm, which, of course, it has caused. I believe there were some efforts to get Indians to cooperate, but when it didn’t go anywhere, he decided he had to go public with it," Zakaria said.
“My guess is there would probably be some kind of judicial process at some point. There would be an arrest. There has to be a trial… In order to stall any bombshell coming out that way, Trudeau did what he did," he added.
“They were motivated by the sense that this is going to go public anyway, but they have ended up in a situation they regret. Canada doesn’t want bad relations with India," the journalist and author further said.
India had earlier this week asked Canada to withdraw several dozen diplomats from its missions amid the escalating diplomatic row that erupted following Trudeau’s allegation linking Indian agents to the killing of Khalistani separatist Nijjar in British Columbia in June.
India rejected the allegations as “absurd" and “motivated" and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa’s expulsion of an Indian official over the case..
“The charges are explosive, so Indians are responding in a similar vigorous way… I think there has to be a way out. India benefits a lot from good relations with Canada, and Canada benefits a lot from good relations with India. One would hope both sides could see larger strategic interest," Zakaria told News18.
Explaining the US position on diplomatic tensions between India and Canada, Zakaria said: “The Americans do believe that there is substantial evidence… Some of the intelligence came from the US. The reason the US doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it is that it has made a strategic decision over the last three administrations to have closer relationship with India."
The journalist added that the pro-Khalistanis are a “only a minority of a minority of a minority". “There are only a handful of people who are actually advocating Khalistani independence," he said.
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