The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Monday strongly rebutted the Justin Trudeau-led Canada government’s claims regarding the involvement of Indian High Commissioner in Ottawa, Sanjay Kumar Verma, and other senior diplomats in an investigation in Canada. The MEA rejected the claims against the diplomats, calling it as “preposterous imputations”, and said that these activities are a part of the Trudeau government’s political agenda centred around vote bank politics.
The reaction came after Ottawa alleged that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are ‘persons of interest’ in a matter related to an investigation in that country, without publicly naming the case in question.
Rejecting the allegations against Verma, MEA said Ambassador Verma is India’s senior-most serving diplomat with a distinguished career spanning 36 years. “He has been Ambassador in Japan and Sudan, while also serving in Italy, Turkiye, Vietnam and China. The aspersions cast on him by the Government of Canada are ludicrous and deserve to be treated with contempt,” the MEA said.
Who is Sanjay Kumar Verma?
A 1988-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, Verma has a distinguished diplomat career of over three decades.
Born on July 28, 1965, Verma graduated from Patna University and continued his higher studies at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, pursuing a Post-Graduate degree in Physics.
After being inducted into diplomatic services, Verma was stationed at the High Commission of India, Hong Kong and at the Embassies of India in the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam and Türkiye, before serving as the Consul General of India in Milan, Italy.
He also served as the Indian Ambassador to the Republic of the Sudan. Following his tenure in Sudan, Verma served as Joint Secretary and later as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi. He later served as the Ambassador of India to Japan and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
In September 2022, he was appointed as the High Commissioner of India to Canada.
India-Canada Soaring Ties
Ties between India and Canada have been strained since September last year when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged Indian government agents’ involvement in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil. New Delhi rejected those charges as “motivated and absurd”.
The MEA said that the Canadian government did not share a shred of evidence of India’s involvement in Nijjar’s killing despite repeated requests and accused Trudeau of doing votebank politics and not doing enough to tackle separatist elements on Canadian soil.
On October 11, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trudeau had a brief encounter on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Laos. According to Trudeau, he spoke to PM Modi about the “work that we need to do”.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistani leader and wanted by the Indian government, was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Canada’s Surrey in June last year.
(With inputs from High Commission Of India, Ottawa)
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