UNITED NATIONS: With India on the back foot following Canada\u2019s allegations about its involvement in the killing of a Sikh leader, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar Tuesday urged UN member states not to allow \u201cpolitical convenience\u201d to determine responses to terrorism, extremism and violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Jaishankar made no direct reference to the diplomatic standoff with Canada in his speech to the 78th session of UN General Assembly as he tried to shift the focus to India\u2019s achievements, including chairing of the Group of 20 industrialized nations, its leadership role in international affairs, as also the moon landing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen we aspire to be a leading power, this is not for self-aggrandizement, but to take on greater responsibility and make more contributions,\u201d he said. \u201cThe goals we have set for ourselves will make us different from all those whose rise preceded ours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On September 18, Canada said on Monday that it was \u201cactively pursuing credible allegations\u201d linking Indian government agents to the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia in June, dealing a further blow to diplomatic ties between the countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an emergency statement to the House of Commons that any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen was \u201can unacceptable violation of our sovereignty\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was shot dead outside a Sikh temple on June 18 in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population. Nijjar supported a Sikh homeland in the form of an independent Khalistani state and was designated by India as a \u201cterrorist\u201d in July 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCanadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India\u201d and Nijjar\u2019s death, Trudeau said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On its part, Pakistan has said it was not \u201csurprised\u201d by Canada\u2019s revelations that the Indian government was involved in the trans-border murder of the pro-Khalistan leader, linking the episode to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s ideology of Hindu nationalism, or Hindutva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ties between the two countries have plunged to their lowest point in years after Canada\u2019s allegations and India\u2019s denials and counter-allegations that Ottawa for years has given free rein to Sikh separatists, including Nijjar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India usually makes veiled references to other countries \u2014 in fact, it has a habit at the U.N. of not directly targeting its criticism<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this context, Jaishankar said that the world must not \u201ccountenance that political convenience determines responses to terrorism, extremism and violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Observers were watching to see whether Jaishankar would take direct aim at Canada, but doing so on a global platform could have widened a rift that already has dominated headlines internationally. Experts have said India wouldn\u2019t like to draw more attention to the dispute with Canada at a forum such as the U.N., preferring instead to treat it as an issue just between the two countries involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opening his speech with \u201cNamaaste from Bharat\u201d, Jaishankar said, \u201cwe often advocate the promotion of a rules-based order. From time to time, respect for the UN Charter is also invoked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut for all the talk, there are still a few nations who shape the agenda and seek to define the norms. This cannot go on indefinitely. Nor will it go unchallenged.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS: With India on the back foot following Canada\u2019s allegations about its involvement in the killing of a Sikh leader, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar Tuesday urged UN member states not to allow \u201cpolitical convenience\u201d to determine responses to terrorism, extremism and violence. But Jaishankar made no direct reference to the diplomatic standoff […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":7045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,84,396,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-india","category-latest","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}