Conscious of India’s outrage over the insult of its security forces and fearing a major diplomatic fall-out, Canada went into damage control mode and said it “regretted’’ its immigration officials’ callous remarks.
Canada also said its policy on the entry of foreigners was under review after a series of incidents involving Indians. Significantly the standoff on the visa issue comes ahead of prime minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Canada next month for a G20 summit.
Ottawa’s response came after some tough talking by external affairs minister SM Krishna.
“Canada deeply regrets the recent incident in which letters drafted by public service officials during routine visa refusals to Indian nationals cast false aspersions on the legitimacy of work carried out by Indian defence and security institutions, which operate under the framework of democratic processes and the rule of law,’’ citizenship and immigration minister Jason Kenney said in Ottawa on Thursday.
Kenny went on to explain that decisions on visa applications were made on a case-by-case basis by “non-partisan public servants’’. However, in the last few cases that cropped up involving Indians, public servants appeared completely biased and given to brush entire institutions with the same brush.
He clarified that the language and the “inaccurate impression it created in no way reflects the policy or position of the government of Canada.’’
A senior Indian official said, “The problem with Canada is that many of its officials want to be politically correct and wear the liberal stamp on their sleeves without understanding the situation. It is time for them to wake up to the real world.’’
He pointed out that India had its own human rights commission, an independent judiciary and a thriving free press to look into violations. “Canadian officials who made the insulting comments certainly had no understanding of the situation,” the official said.
“Canada has the highest regard for India, its government institutions and processes,’’ the minister said.
