Indian intelligence agencies have attempted to use money and misinformation to ‘influence’ Canadian politicians, a report by Global Times has revealed.
Saying that they have access to the sensitive document, the Global Times report says that Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Indian Intelligence Bureau that were behind the operation, started influencing Canadian politicians with money so that they were swayed into supporting Indian government decisions.
The operation was revealed in a federal court where an Indian national – reportedly an editor-in-chief identified as AB for a leading daily – is the point of contact between Indian intelligence and Canadian politicians.
The Canadian government has expressed concern ‘when another country shows destabilizing behavior including interfering in another countries’ democratic system’.
Incidentally, Indian intelligence continued influencing the politicians, according to the report, even after the Narendra Modi government assumed power in 2014. Most of the influence had to do with Pakistan’s role on the global scale, the report added.
In 2018, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s trip turned out to be what many people call ‘a diplomatic disaster’. When Trudeau visited Modi’s home state of Gujarat, the Indian prime minister was campaigning for polls in Karnataka.
Trudeau had arrived yesterday in India for a week-long visit, during which he would hold talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on wide-ranging issues, including defence and counter-terror cooperation. He is scheduled to visit Akshardham temple in Gujarat and the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Significantly, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had earlier refused to meet Candian Defence minister Harjit Sajjan during the latter’s visit to Punjab last year. He had even accused Sajjan of being a “Khalistani sympathiser”. Meanwhile, a team comprising Canadian officials today visited the Golden Temple in Amritsar. “A team comprising Canadian officials today paid a visit to the Golden Temple in the wake of the visit of Canadian PM to Amritsar,” said the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) Chief Secretary Roop Singh.
