New Delhi: Indian students in Canada “should be aware of their surroundings” and resist radicalisation attempts by Khalistani terrorists and extremists, Sanjay Kumar Verma, India’s recalled High Commissioner told NDTV Thursday evening. Verma urged the parents of students in Canada to “please talk to them regularly and try to understand” their situation, and to guide them away from unwise choices.
“At this time in Canada there is a threat from Khalistani terrorists and extremists to the larger Indian community… including students (of whom there were around 319,000 as of 2023),” he said.
“How this (Khalistani terrorists’ outreach to Indian students in Canada) works is… given the condition of that economy there are few jobs… so students are offered money and food, and this is how Khalistani terrorists and extremists influence them with nefarious plans” Verma explained to NDTV.
Some students, he said, are also persuaded to take photographs or videos of themselves ‘protesting’ – shouting anti-India slogans or insulting the flag – outside Indian diplomatic buildings in Canada.
“Then they are told to go seek asylum… because their version will be, ‘If I go back to India now, I will be punished…’ and there have been cases of such students being given asylum,” he said.
There are, therefore, various kinds of negative influences acting on Indian students in Canada that are pushing them towards the wrong direction, Verma told NDTV, as he appealed to parents.
The former envoy’s comments come as the India-Canada diplomatic relationship spirals downward over repeated and unsubstantiated claims by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – that “agents” of Delhi conspire with criminal gangs, including the Lawrence Bishnoi outfit, to “target (the) South Asians” in that country.
