Thiruvananthapuram: Former Indian ambassador to the United States and foreign affairs expert TP Sreenivasan said India does not have a policy to go for extra-territorial killing despite its hard stance on terrorism. He further said until the issue between India and Canada reaches a climax, relations between the two countries can't become normal.
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Sreenivasan, who expressed concern over Canada's 'soft stance' towards Khalistanis, said the problem is glaring and must be resolved before it further escalates. 'Although India does not condone terrorism, but it is not our practice to invade other countries and kill terrorists or try to harm them as alleged by Canada. But India strongly demands that Khalistani terrorists in Canada to be taken to task. Canadian President Justin Trudeau might secretly admit that he is not able to do this. Canada should find out a mechanism to solve the problem. It's clear that Trudeau wants to preserve the Sikh vote bank but he can't anger India, which is an emerging global power," he said.
According to Sreenivasan, going by the the current situation, the relationship between the two countries is likely to deteriorate further. "Trudeau, who returned to Canada's capital Ottawa after the G-20 summit, made a statement that there was evidence that India was involved in the murder of Sikh terrorist Nijjar. This is for the first time that a country has made such an allegation against India. It is never India's motive to get involve in such a mess. India is demanding that Canada give evidence that it has killed Nijjar. India and Canada faced bigger problem in 1985, when Air India's Kanishka plane was blown by Khalistan terrorists in that country. But it did not affect India-Canada relations. Both countries realized that there is a terrorist group behind this. India and Canada continued to cooperate," the ex-diplomat said.
He further said the Khalistan issue is almost over for India but for Trudeau, Khalistan politics is an integral part of Canadian politics. Sreenivasan said the US should have handled this issue with a little more restraint .
