‘Canada backstabbed us!’

India’s recalled high commissioner Sanjay Verma during an interview with PTI on Wednesday. Pic/PTI

Calling Canada's behaviour "the pits", India's recalled high commissioner Sanjay Verma says India was back-stabbed and treated in a most unprofessional manner by a country that is supposed to be a friendly democracy.

In an unexpected downturn of relations, Verma was declared a "person of interest" by Canada last week in its investigation into the June 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen who has been declared a Khalistani terrorist by India. Before Canada could take further action, New Delhi recalled Verma and five other diplomats. who were also similarly named.

"This is the pits. This is the most unprofessional approach to a bilateral relationship. There are diplomatic tools available in the hands of a diplomat. Those tools could have been used" instead of seeking to interrogate a country's top envoy and other diplomats, Verma said in an interview to PTI Video recorded on Wednesday, his first after returning to India.

Verma also spoke about the genesis of the Khalistani movement in Canada, the support it has been getting from local politicians for electoral gains, and the kind of criminal activities they carry out in order to increase their numbers.

He said that extreme hard-line Khalistanis are only about 10,000 in number, and supporters amount to perhaps one lakh. "To get support they intimidate commons Sikhs there, including with threats such as ‘we know where your daughter is studying" Verma said.

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