New Delhi: Amid the massive escalation in India-Canada row, external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Monday blamed Ottawa for its double standards in diplomatic ties.
Speaking at an NDTV summit, the minister said, “So apparently, the license that they give themselves is totally different from the kind of restrictions that they impose on diplomats in Canada. When we tell them you have people openly threatening leaders of India, diplomats of India. Their answer is freedom of speech. When Indian journalists make social media comments, if you threaten the Indian High Commissioner, he is supposed to accept it as freedom of speech.”
“But if an Indian journalist says the Canadian High Commissioner walked out of South Block looking very grumpy, it is foreign interference. Even double standards are mild words for it. There is this thing that we will do differently at home. We will do it differently abroad. We will do it our way, but that doesn’t apply to you. I think these are the larger adjustments which have to happen in this changing world,” the EAM pointed out.
Jaishankar’s sharp reaction comes as the diplomatic relations between India and Canada are in a tailspin. Last week, India expelled six Canadian diplomats and recalled its envoy as Canada named the Indian high commissioner to the North American country and other diplomats as “persons of interest” in its investigation into the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
In response to Trudeau’s charges, India stoutly denied any role in Nijjar’s murder, dubbing the claims as politically motivated and absurd. The external affairs ministry lambasted Trudeau for his “cavalier behaviour”, which had damaged the relations between the two countries.
