Key Takeaways
- India has rejected a Canadian inquiry report alleging election interference, slamming Ottawa for consistently interfering in India’s internal affairs.
- The report claims India used proxy agents to support candidates in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, but India denies these allegations.
- India-Canada relations have deteriorated over the past few years due to various allegations and diplomatic expulsions.
New Delhi: India today rejected a report by Canada’s Foreign-Interference Inquiry Commission alleging interference by India in its elections, and slammed Ottawa for consistently interfering in India’s internal affairs.
In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said that Canada’s interference in India’s affairs has created an atmosphere for illegal migration and organised crime.
The statement read:
“We have seen a report about alleged activities on purported interference. It is in fact Canada which has been consistently interfering in India’s internal affairs.
“This has also created an environment for illegal migration and organized criminal activities.
“We reject the report’s insinuations on India and expect that the support system enabling illegal migration will not be further countenanced.”
The report by Canada’s Foreign Interference Inquiry Commission, on suspected foreign interference in its 2019 and 2021 elections, said that the Government of India is suspected of using proxy agents to “provide clandestine financial support to specific candidates from three political parties in a federal election”.
Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) members said they saw intelligence suggesting MPs worked to influence their colleagues on India’s behalf and proactively provided confidential information to Indian officials, cbc.ca reported.
Relations between India and Canada have nosedived over the past few years under the Justin Trudeau government especially with Ottawa alleging an Indian hand in the killing of a Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an Indo-Canadian, in British Columbia in June 2023. India has rejected the charges. India and Canada last year also expelled six of each other’s diplomats over the allegations.
