Congress calls for ‘intensive diplomatic’ dialogue with Canada to resolve the serious issue

Congress urges India, Canada to engage in intensive diplomatic engagement to resolve serious issue; stresses on ensuring security for Indian students/professionals in Canada; reiterates fight against terrorism must be uncompromising.

The fight against terrorism should be uncompromising, the Congress said on September 22 as it urged India and Canada for an “intensive diplomatic engagement to resolve the serious issue”.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also stressed on ensuring security for thousands of Indian students and professionals working in Canada.

“The Congress reiterates that our fight against terrorism has to be uncompromising, especially when terrorism threatens India’s sovereignty, unity and integrity,” Mr. Ramesh told reporters.

“The Congress hopes that intensive diplomatic engagement between the two countries will help resolve the current serious crisis between India and Canada,” he added.

On Thursday, tensions between the two countries escalated, with India suspending the issuance of visas for Canadians, citing security threat to officials.

The current freeze in diplomatic ties was triggered by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement in his Parliament that “Indian agents” were involved in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian national, who had been designated as a Khalistani terrorist.

Mr. Ramesh said there are over 300,000 Indian-origin students, as well as thousands of professionals, in Canada and noted that the two countries have shared economic and technological relations and the Shastri Indo-Canada institute was named after India’s second Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shashtri.