Organised crime, violence, extremism in Canada: Jaishankar

How S Jaishankar turned the tables on Canada over terrorism…

Transcript

00:00We have actually been badgering the Canadians, we have given them a lot of information about

00:06organized crime leadership which operates out of Canada.

00:12There are a large number of extradition requests.

00:16There are terrorist leaders who have been identified.

00:35I wondered if you had any comment on the recent allegations by

00:39Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau that agents of India, the government of India,

00:44are linked to the shooting, the fatal shooting of a Canadian Sikh activist.

00:50Yes, I do have a comment.

00:52Can you share them with us?

00:54I know, I'll share with you very frankly what we told the Canadians.

01:01One, we told the Canadians that this is not the government of India's policy.

01:06Two, we told the Canadians saying that look, if you have something specific,

01:11if you have something relevant, you know, let us know.

01:15We are open to looking at it.

01:18So, but to, you know, to understand the context of it, in a way, you know, because the picture

01:25is not complete without the context in a way, you also have to appreciate, Ken, that in the last

01:33few years, Canada actually has seen a lot of organized crime, you know, relating to,

01:44you know, the secessionist forces, organized crime, violence, extremism.

01:50They're all very, very deeply mixed up.

01:54So, in fact, we have been, you know, talking about specifics and information.

01:59We have actually been badgering the Canadians.

02:02We've given them a lot of information about organized crime leadership, which operates

02:09out of Canada.

02:12There are a large number of extradition requests.

02:16There are terrorist leaders who have been identified.

02:20So, do understand that there is an environment out there.

02:25So, that is important in a way to factor in.

02:32If you have to understand what is going on out there, and our concern is that, you know,

02:40it's really been very permissive because of political reasons.

02:45So, we have a situation where actually our diplomats are threatened.

02:51Our consulates have been attacked.

02:54And, you know, and often comments are made about, you know, there's interference in our

03:02politics.

03:05And, you know, a lot of this is often justified as saying, well, that's how democracies work.

03:11But if there are specific pieces of evidence that they provide, the government of India

03:16will cooperate with them in terms of following up.

03:18I mean, look, if somebody gives me something specific, it doesn't have to be restricted

03:23to Canada.

03:24But if there's any incident which, you know, is an issue, and somebody gives me something

03:31specific as a government, I would look at it.

03:33Of course, I would look at it.