'Baseless allegations': MEA dismisses reports suggesting 'India's interference in Canadian elections'

Days after several media reports suggested that Canadian authorities had in a classified document marked India as a 'foreign interference threat' that could potentially interfere in Canadian elections, the Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday strongly rejected the "baseless allegations" saying that  it's not India's policy to interfere in the democratic process of other countries.Addressing the media on Thursday, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "We have seen media reports, Canadian Commission inquiring into foreign interferences...we strongly reject such baseless allegations of Indian interference in Canadian elections."He further said that it's not India's policy to interfere in the democratic process of other countries and instead blamed Canada for interfering in India's internal matters."It is not govt of India's policy to interfere in the democratic process of other countries, in fact, quite on the reverse it is Canada, who has been interfering in our internal affairs. We have been raising this issue regularly with them, we continue to call on Canada to take effective measures to address our core concerns," said Jaiswal.Recently, Canadian Security Intelligence Service's declassified document to Canadian government showed that the authorities had marked India as a 'foreign interference threat' that could potentially interfere in Canadian elections.The Canadian intelligence agency report mentions “India engages in Foreign Interference activities."According to a report by Global News, that accessed the declassified documents, almost three pages of the report were devoted to India, although they were entirely redacted except for a single sentence that claimed India engages in Foreign Interference activities.The Canadian intelligence report points to the need for “clearly articulated strategies," and said raising awareness and briefing officials and politicians was “central to these efforts."Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had ordered the inquiry of foreign interference in attempting to sway Canadian elections after media reports flagged Chinese activities.On Indian students death in US, Jaiswal said that five Indian students have died including students from India diaspora. Of the five, two are India nationals and the remaining three are of Indian origin but US nationals."...Culprit behind Vivek Saini's murder has been arrested, local authorities are investigating the matter and taking it forward...second case also there is no foul play as per the preliminary report but we await the medical report...we are in touch with the local authorities in the cases of Indian nationals...," added the MEA spokesperson.Talking about Maldives, Jaiswal said the budget for the country this time is Rs 770.9 crore which has gone up."The new figure will also be revised once we have more details and more clarity on what sort of forward movement is happening...We remain an important committed development partner for Maldives," he added.With inputs from agencies