Canadian journalist Daniel Bordman called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's recent statement acknowledging that the evidence is intelligence-based rather than concrete on the Khalistan issue as a major win for the Indian narrative.
While speaking with ANI, Bordman said, "This is a pretty big win for the Indian narrative right now... From the Canadian perspective, we had gone pretty hard. We had gone to the point where we had kicked out a diplomat... We had named the Indian High Commission. We started this publicly..."
The Canadian journalist further pointed out that the diplomatic spat between India and Canada centers around whether Hardeep Singh Nijjar a Khalistani terrorist or a community activist.
"On the geopolitical technicality aspect, India wins here because you never said you had evidence. But what does it change from the grand structures of things? Ultimately, the diplomatic spat is really about the unanswered question, was Hardeep Singh Nijjar a Khalistani terrorist or a community activist? And that general disagreement has not moved," Bordman added.
Bordman also criticised Trudeau's, "Canada's position has always been to defend the territorial integrity of India" statement and said that his actions don't align with his words.
"Trudeau says things and then Trudeau does things. Often times, what Trudeau says he is doing does not match with the reality of what he is doing. He might claim that he is against Khalistani separatism but he would also promote Khalistani separatism. Don't think it is outlandish to assume that he is being untruthful when he says he is doing something when he is not doing that thing. This is a common Justin Trudeau thing which leads back to his scandals and unpopularity...," Bordman said.
Notably, Trudeau on Wednesday had said that his government had not provided India with hard evidence but just intelligence regarding the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil.
Testifying at Canada's foreign interference inquiry, Trudeau said India has been insisting on evidence over allegations levelled by Canada."Behind the scenes (were trying) India to co-operate with us. Their ask was...give us the evidence you have on us. Our response was it is within your security agency. You should be looking into how much they know, you should be engaging... 'No, no but show us the evidence'. At that point, it was primarily intelligence, not hard evidentiary proof. So we said let's work together...," he said.