India lodges protest over Canada's allegations against its home minister

NEW DELHI -- Indian government Saturday said it has protested "in the strongest terms" Canada's allegations against its federal home minister Amit Shah, terming them as "absurd and baseless".

According to India's foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, the Canadian High Commission representative in India was summoned and handed over a diplomatic note in this regard.

In the note, India accused Canadian officials of deliberately leaking unfounded insinuations to the international media "as part of a conscious strategy to discredit India and influence other nations", saying such irresponsible actions will have serious consequences on bilateral ties.

Diplomatic relations between India and Canada deteriorated further last month after the two countries expelled each other's diplomats including the high commissioners.

This situation came after Ottawa said the Indian high commissioner and other diplomats are "persons of interest" in the murder of a Sikh separatist leader and accused New Delhi of targeting Indian dissidents in Canada.

New Delhi strongly rejected Canada's claims and accused Ottawa of not sharing evidence to justify their claim. However, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) issued a statement on "violent criminal activity occurring in Canada with connections to agents of the Government of India".

New Delhi and Ottawa were locked in a diplomatic dispute in September 2023, after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that Indian agents played a role in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist leader near Vancouver in June. India outrightly denied the allegations and described them as "absurd and motivated".

The row later led to tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions between the two sides.