'When A Democracy Adopts Different Yardsticks...': India Reacts To Canada Charging Two Men For Threatening Trudeau

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal also stated that India "would like to see strong action, same level of action on the threats posed to us".

Amid the rising "acts of hate and violence" against India in Canada, the Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday reacted to the Canadian police charging two men for posing threats to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other political leaders. Commenting on this, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated that "we would like to see strong action, same level of action on the threats posed to us".

Acknowledging being aware about the matter, MEA stated: "We have seen these reports. When a democracy adopts different yardsticks to measure or implement the rule of law and freedom of expression, it only exposes its own double standard."

Jaiswal further stressed that India expects Canada to take action against "anti-India elements" who have repeatedly threatened Indian leaders, airlines, institutions, and diplomats by "violence".

This comes as Royal Canadian Mounted Police stated on Monday that they had charged two men for posting threats against Trudeau and other Canadian political leaders including, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh.

The threats were posted by one person on X (formerly Twitter) on May 10, where he threatened to kill the Canadian PM. In another similar incident, another man on June 7, had threatened to kill Trudeau, Freeland, and Singh.

The two men who have been charged are a 23-year-old Calgary man and 67-year-old Edmonton man. While the former has been charged with one count of uttering threats, the latter has been charged for three. Both of them have been scheduled to appear before court this week, news agency Reuters reported.

Besides Indian leaders and diplomats being targetted in Canada, Chandra Arya, a Hindu Canadian MP, was also threatened and asked to move back to India.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun of Sikhs for Justice asked Arya and other Hindu-origin Canadians to leave the country, alleging they were "working against Canada, its values, and its Charter of Rights."

However, Arya hit back at Pannun saying that 'Khalistani extremists are polluting our land" and even condemned the "anti-India" graffiti at the BAPS Swaminarayan Temple in Edmonton.