Naidu meets Canadian Senate Speaker, urges authorities to check activities of separatist groups

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday met visiting Speaker of Canada's Senate George J Furey and said Canada has the potential to be a key partner in every area of India's development including skills, digital economy, infrastructure, energy, health, agriculture, defence, and science and technology.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday met visiting Speaker of Canada's Senate George J Furey and said Canada has the potential to be a key partner in every area of India's development including skills, digital economy, infrastructure, energy, health, agriculture, defence, and science and technology. Naidu, who is Chairman of Rajya Sabha, urged the Canadian authorities to check anti-India activities of some separatist groups in Canada by sensitising its parliamentarians and others concerned against the same.

He stressed that it is an accepted principle that there shall not be any outside interference in the internal affairs of any country. Referring to India's view that "terrorism is a common threat to all democracies and open, pluralist societies," Naidu said all like-minded countries need to come together to fight this menace.

An official release said that the leader of the visiting delegation mentioned that Canada too has similar views as India on terror and believes that concerted global action is required to combat this growing menace. Both the leaders mentioned the vibrancy in bilateral ties including the trade and the strong bond of friendship between two countries based on shared values and belief in multilateralism.

Naidu expressed happiness over the contribution of Indian diaspora in Canada and referred to 22 Canadians of Indian origin having been elected to the Canadian Parliament last year with four of them becoming Ministers. "We are proud of the role that parliamentarians of India-origin in Canada are playing in your country. They are a bridge and face of our outstanding people-to-people ties," he said.

Naidu also pointed to several other areas where there is considerable scope for expanding the current engagements. "Canada has the potential to be a key partner in every area of India's national development priority - be it skilling, digital economy, infrastructure development, energy, health, agriculture, defence, and science and technology," he said.

Expressing satisfaction that the Canadian Pension Funds have been at the vanguard of portfolio investment in India, he underscored the possibility of scaling up investments in India's infrastructure sector to over US $ 40 billion. When the leader of the visiting delegation sought to know his views on J&K developments, Naidu gave an account of the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India and the subsequent constitutional developments.

Naidu said that Article 370 was inserted as a temporary provision but it remained for 71 long years till it was deleted last year. He said as a border state sharing international boundary with Pakistan and China, separatism in Jammu and Kashmir was sponsored, fanned and taken advantage of by outsiders and India's economic growth largely bypassed the state.

Some of the India's progressive laws did not apply to the state, keeping the residents behind the rest of the country, he noted. Naidu said that deletion of Article 370 was an internal administrative decision concerning the welfare of Indian citizens and carried out in strict compliance with Constitutional provisions and with an overwhelming majority in both the Houses of Parliament.

The members of the visiting delegation included Donald Neil Plett, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Senator Yvonne Boyer. Canada's Deputy High Commissioner in India also attended the meeting. Furey invited Naidu to visit Canada. (ANI)

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