India slams Canada's move to ban 'Australia Today' hours after it aired External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar's remarks on Khalistani extremism in Canada.
Canada has banned 'Australia Today' after the media outlet aired External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's press conference in Australia.
Dr Jaishankar had remarked on the India-Canada diplomatic standoff and Khalistani extremism in Canada.
India on Thursday said it was surprised by Canada's move to ban the outlet and stressed that it highlighted Ottawa's hypocrisy towards freedom of speech.
"We understand that the social media handles, pages of this particular outlet, which is an important diaspora outlet, have been blocked and are not available for viewers in Canada.
This happened just an hour or a few hours after this particular handle carried the press conference of S Jaishankar with Penny Wong. We were surprised. It looks strange to us," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a weekly media briefing.
"But, nonetheless, what I will say is that these are actions which yet again highlight the hypocrisy of Canada towards freedom of speech.
You would have seen that the External Affairs Minister, in his media engagements, spoke about three things. One was Canada making allegations and a pattern had developed without any specific evidence. The second thing he highlighted was surveillance of Indian diplomats happening in Canada, which he termed as unacceptable," he said.
"The third thing which he highlighted was the political space which has been given in Canada to anti-India elements. So you can draw your conclusions from that, why Australia Today channel was blocked by Canada," he further said.
Last month, ties nosedived when Canada termed the Indian High Commissioner a "person of interest" in its probe into Nijjar's murder. India vehemently dismissed the fresh charge and recalled the envoy and some diplomats, while expelling six Canadian officials, including Canada's acting High Commissioner.
Meanwhile, Dr S Jaishankar listed some consequences of Donald Trump being elected as the US President.
New Delhi sees an acceleration and disruption in the re-ordering of the supply chains as an opportunity.
First, there was already re-ordering of the supply chains which was taking place. It is very likely that in view of the election results in the US yesterday, that this would accelerate.
"I'll be very candid with you, that some of this will be somewhat disruptive, but we in India perceive it as an opportunity because we have missed the manufacturing bus in the 1990s, early 2000s," Jaishankar said after meeting CEOs and business leaders in Sydney while on an official visit to Australia.
He said there "would be more geopolitical hedging, which will inevitably happen as a consequence of policies which we can safely predict - and many more of us would be seeking more relationships (globally) to keep life stable".
Jaishankar stressed that the world would be moving to a much more integrated global workplace in the next few years.
"Even a US under Donald Trump will make a distinction in immigration and mobility for them. An economically-justified mobility will have to be fostered by those countries," he said.
"The third pertains to the digital side and what has happened and will continue to happen. What has been happening and will continue to intensify is about trust, and what accompanies the digital aspect of a product or service or technology will come under greater scrutiny," Jaishankar said.
"Digital payment platforms, for example, would become, in a sense, much more valuable, and which platform to use and share with whom, becomes an important question".
He said. the fourth element of a Trump win was the mobility of talent and skills.
"Even as there is a deglobalisation or reworking of current architecture, apart from technological charges, I think the demographic unevenness of the world is beginning to bite us so that there would be economies where the demand would be high. In those countries, the talents may not be plentiful," the foreign minister said.
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