Key Highlights from Sanjay Kumar Verma’s Interview with CTV’s Vassy Kapelos

20th October, Sunday the CTV News broadcasted an interview with a former Indian High Commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma with the TV News Journalist Vassy Kapelos. Sanjay Kumar Verma was recently asked to return to India by the Indian government over security concerns.

Indian career diplomats have been accused by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) of linking to the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, without providing any hard evidence. Additionally, the Liberal Trudeau government has declared him as a ‘person of interest.’

Sanjay Kumar Verma did an Interview with CTV News correspondent Vassy Kapelos before leaving Canada. He slammed the Government of Canada for sacrificing two-way relations with India in order to gain favour with Khalistanis. He also revealed the Canadian government’s claims to be illogical regarding the Hardeep Singh Nijjar Murder.

Key Highlights

Canada has failed to offer any evidence

Despite the lack of supporting evidence, the CTV journalist remained obsessed with the broad accusations made by the RCMP and the Trudeau administration throughout the 26-minute interview. Sanjay Kumar Verma demanded that before Canada accused a democratic, independent country like India of international killings, it must present it with a proof.

Verma said in the set, “We needed to see some evidence on the basis of which we can converse with our Canadian counterparts. Unfortunately, not a shred of evidence has been shared with us. Any evidence which is shared has to be legally acceptable. We are a country of rule of law, and so is Canada.”

Trudeau settled for political bluff

Sanjay Kumar Verma did not hesitate to point out upon Canada’s violation of established procedures in order to gain political favour and damage relations with India.

Verma said, “Canada didn’t follow the practice which should have been there. Evidence should have been shared first. But someone decided to stand in the parliament and talk about a thing for which he himself has said there was no hard evidence. So let’s be very clear what we are talking about. And the day on which he did that, since then he has made sure that the bilateral relation with India only goes downwards, spiralling down.”

Regarding RCMP political bias

Vassy attempted to present the RCMP as a private sector force during the interview. Her bluff was immediately called out by Sanjay Kumar Verma, “How politically independent they are, we can discuss it till the cows come home. They are. That’s your view.I will give you my view. So till two days before, they said there is no evidence to share. And in PFI, in the Foreign Reference Committee meeting, and all of a sudden, there was all the evidence in the world available with them. So let’s not go there. And the political motivation, I have been talking about it for a long time. No official, no institution can remain completely aloof from what’s happening politically.”

An intentional “meeting” tactic at the last minute

When asked why the Indian government was refusing to allow RCMP officials to meet with their Indian counterparts, Sanjay Kumar Verma explained that the request had been made at the last minute without a clear agenda.

Verma stated, “There is a time which is taken to issue a visa. Between India and Canada, there is no visa-free agreement. So, therefore, in general, I can tell you, in general, for a government official from India to come to Canada, it would take at least a week to get the visa…So, the visa is one. Second is, what did they want to talk about? That was not shared at all.”

Following their accusation as a “person of interest” in Canada

Without providing any evidence, he strongly dismissed the accusations made against him as politically motivated. If the Trudeau administration had the proof, then why had they not filed a chargesheet Verma questioned.

Regarding accusations made against Indian diplomats

Verma Stated, “First of all, I as High Commissioner of India had never done anything of that kind. That is one. Second, my colleagues, do we want to know what pro-Khalistan elements in Canada are doing? Yes, we do. That’s my national interest. That’s my core concern with Canada which is trying to tear up Indian territory. So if the Canadian politicians are so novice that they want me not to know what my enemies are doing here, I am sorry. Then they do not know what the international relation is all about. There is nothing covert. It’s all over. So we read the newspapers, we read their statements.  Since we understand Punjabi, we read their social media posts and try to infer from there.”

India’s stance on extrajudicial executions

Verma immediately condemned the murder of Nijjar and stated that India respects the rule of law. However, he drew attention to the fact that certain G7 nations, who have a history of extraterritorial killings, were scolding India without providing any supporting data.

He added,“It (extra judicial killings) should not happen anywhere in the world. I know the countries which have done it. And some of them are G7 countries, by the way. So let us not talk about it. There should not be double standards.So as far as we are concerned, the largest democracy in the world, we are committed not to do extrajudicial killings on any territory, leave foreign countries.”

Canada become a hub for Khalistanis

Verma asked very bluntly, “Some of them came here as innocent international students, and they turned into criminals in this country. I don’t know what happened. How did they get influenced? There are so many things Khalistani extremists are being encouraged all the time…I also know that some of these Khalistani extremists and terrorists are deep assets of CISIS”

He added,“These Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who are based out of Canada, are not Indians. They are Canadian citizens, and no government should encourage their citizens to attack the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries.”

The Trudeau government’s inaction in response to India’s evidence

Verma  stated, “We have sent 26 dossiers to Canada. What has happened?”, he inquired. In another segment of the interview, the career diplomat pointed out, “The most important case at hand from our point of view are the 26 extradition requests, and so many other arrest requests.”

Sanjay Kumar Verma claimed that despite the Indian government sending 26 dossiers containing information regarding terrorists from the Khalistani community operating out of Canada, no action was taken against them.

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India No longer bullied

Verma made it crystal clear, “Gone are the days when the so-called developed countries or Western bloc would ask a developing country(India), you must do this, and they will run after them and do it. We are a rule-of-law country, as Canada prides itself to be a rule-of-law country.” the ex-Indian High Commissioner to Canada underlined.

He made it clear to Vassy, the journalist for CTV News who appeared to be working on Trudeau’s agenda, that India would no longer be bullied by western countries.