While responding to allegations by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that there is a “potential link” between the Indian government and the killing of the Khalistani terrorist Hardeep singh Nijjar, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said that India had conveyed to Ottawa it was not “Government of India’s policy”.

“Yes, I do have a comment. I’ll share with you very frankly what we told the Canadians. One, we told the Canadians that this is not the Government of India’s policy. Two, we told the Canadians that look, if you have something specific, if you have something relevant, let us know. We are open to looking at it,” Jaishankar said while responding to a question during an interaction at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York.

“You also have to appreciate that in the last few years, Canada actually has seen a lot of organised crime relating to the secessionist forces, organised crime, violence, extremism. They’re all very, very deeply mixed up,” he further said.

“We have actually been badgering the Canadians, we have given them a lot of information about organised crime leadership, which operates out of Canada. There are a large number of extradition requests. There are terrorist leaders who have been identified,” the EAM added.

Jaishankar said that Canada’s political situation could have a say in the matter. “That is important in a way to factor in if you have to understand what is going on out there. And our concern is that it’s really been very permissive because of political reasons. So we have a situation where actually our diplomats are threatened, our consulates have been attacked and often comments are made about ‘there’s interference in our politics’. And, a lot of this is often justified as saying, well, that’s how democracies work,” he said.