New Delhi:
India on Wednesday strongly trashed as “smear marketing campaign” a Canadian media report that claimed that the Indian prime minister was conscious of the alleged plot to kill Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Referring to the report quoting an unnamed official, Exterior Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal mentioned such “ludicrous statements” must be dismissed with the contempt they deserve.
“We don’t usually touch upon media studies. Nevertheless, such ludicrous statements made to a newspaper purportedly by a Canadian authorities supply must be dismissed with the contempt they deserve,” he mentioned.
“Smear campaigns like this solely additional injury our already strained ties,” he mentioned.
Jaiswal was responding to media queries concerning the report in Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail.
Within the report, the newspaper cited inputs from a senior nationwide safety official.
The report claimed the Indian nationwide safety advisor and the exterior affairs minister have been additionally within the loop of the plot.
Nijjar was gunned down on Canadian soil final yr.
India-Canada ties nosedived final month after Canada linked Indian Excessive Commissioner Sanjay Verma and another diplomats to the homicide.
India has strongly rejected all of the allegations made by Ottawa in connection to the case and subsequently recalled the excessive commissioner. The Canadian authorities had mentioned the Indian diplomats have been expelled from the nation.
New Delhi expelled Canadian Cost d’Affaires Stewart Wheeler and 5 different diplomats following Canada’s allegations.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by EDNBOX workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)