“If we believed that the government of India was actively interfering in the Canadian democratic process, we probably wouldn’t be taking this trip,” the official added.
Relations between Canada and India plummeted when, in 2023, former prime minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons that Canadian security agencies were investigating “credible allegations of a potential link” between Indian government agents and the shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent pro-Khalistan Sikh activist gunned down outside of a temple in Surrey, B.C.
India has denied the allegations. Four Indian nationals have since been charged in Nijjar’s death.
The 2025 final report from the Foreign Interference Commission named India the “second most active country engaging in electoral foreign interference in Canada.”
But speaking on the sidelines of an announcement on university partnerships in Mumbai, High Commissioner of India to Canada Dinesh Patnaik flatly rejected the assertion that India meddles in Canada’s affairs.
“We don’t do that in any country,” he told reporters on Friday.
Asked specifically about the comments made by the government official, Patnaik dismissed India’s involvement in any violence in the first place,
“It’s not a question of, it is no longer happening. It never happened.”
Patnaik said recent meetings between India and Canada’s national security and intelligence advisor earlier this month and back in November “has been able to clear a lot of the things that were perceived before.”
“There is a perception that India is taking action in Canada, which never was. India never did,” he said.
He then added: “And so today, if somebody is saying the right thing, take it as it is.”
Advocates of Canada’s Sikh community, meanwhile, have warned that Carney’s trip to India to drum up new investments and diversify its market access sends the wrong signal to community members and, in particular, pro-Khalistan activists who remain in fear.
Sukh Dhaliwal, the Liberal MP who represents the riding where Nijjar was killed, denounced the comments made by the senior official about India’s alleged ties to violence, going so far as to say the government ought to examine their suitability for role.
“I understand and appreciate deeply in my conversations with the Sikh caucus that the sentiments that the Sikh community in Canada are feeling are very serious, and I too, have concerns and will continue to raise those concerns at the table in my conversations with Indian diplomats,” Anand said on Saturday.
As domestic security tensions continue to hover around Carney’s trip, the prime minister was set on Saturday to deliver a speech regarding the Canada-India business relationship at an event hosted by the Canada-India Growth and Investment Forum.
