Responding strongly to reports of social media handles and pages of an Australian news outlet being blocked in Canada hours after it carried a press conference of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong as well as an interview of the Indian minister, India has said such actions highlight Canada’s hypocrisy towards freedom of speech. 

During his Australia visit, which ends on Thursday, Mr Jaishankar met Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and also co-chaired the 15th Foreign Ministers’ Framework Dialogue with Ms Wong. 

Asked about the social media handles of Australia Today being blocked in Canada, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday, “We understand that social media handles and pages of this outlet, which is an important diaspora outlet, have been blocked and are not available for viewers in Canada. This happened a few hours after this particular handle carried the press conference of the External Affairs Minister with Penny Wong.”

Stating that the outlet had carried an interview with Mr Jaishankar as well as several articles on his visit, Mr Jaiswal added, “We were surprised. It looks strange to us. But, nonetheless, these are actions that yet again highlight the hypocrisy of Canada towards freedom of speech. In his media interactions, the External Affairs Minister spoke about three things: a pattern of Canada making allegations without evidence, the surveillance of Indian diplomats – which he termed unacceptable – and the political space being given in Canada to anti-India elements. So you can draw your conclusions from that on why the Australia Today channel was blocked.”

Last week, India had said some of its consular officials were informed by the Canadian government that they have been under audio and video surveillance. Terming the action a “flagrant violation” of diplomatic conventions, India had said Canada could not hide behind technicalities to justify its harassment and intimidation and that a protest had been lodged with the Canadian government. 

Mr Jaiswal also confirmed that some consular camps have been cancelled in Toronto because they did not get security assurance from Canada. The announcement came days after the attack on a Hindu temple in Brampton, where a consular camp was being held, on November 3. PM Narendra Modi had also condemned the attack and criticised “cowardly attempts” to intimidate Indian diplomats in Canada. 
 
Ties between India and Canada have been strained since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed – without offering any evidence – last year that “Indian agents” were involved in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The allegation has been rubbished by New Delhi several times and it has asked Canada to produce evidence to back up the claim.

The relationship hit a new low last month when the Indian High Commissioner was termed a “person of interest” in the killing. India dismissed the fresh charge as “ludicrous” and withdrew the High Commissioner and some diplomats while expelling six Canadian officials, including Canada’s acting High Commissioner Stewart Ross Wheeler. 

In a press briefing after his meeting with top business leaders and CEOs in Australia, S Jaishankar mentioned about “something that happened yesterday”, referring to the US election result. Mr Jaishankar said India “perceives this as an opportunity”.

Former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump made a stunning comeback after a 4-year gap to get re-elected as the 47th President of the United States of America. Mr Trump’s win will almost certainly have an effect on the global order and significantly impact policy and trade for most nations.

Mr Trump’s win will have a big impact on globalisation. Sharing his views on this, Mr Jaishankar said there are four aspects on how India views this: Firstly, “There was already a reordering of supply chains which was taking place (globally). It is very likely that this will get accelerated after the election result in the US.”

He went on to say that “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 having kind of missed the manufacturing bus in the 1990s, early 2000s, we do think that this reordering of supply chain gives us a sort of second bite of the apple. And maybe this time around, starting with Apple, we are doing better than we were doing earlier.”

“Secondly, there will be, in a way, more geopolitical hedging. that, what will inevitably happen as a consequence of policies which we can, at least those parts of it we can safely predict, will be that many more of us would be seeking more relationships (globally) to keep life stable,” he added.

The foreign minister went on to highlight the significance of the digital age we all live in, explaining that digital payment platforms will ultimately become very valuable.

“The third aspect pertains to the digital digital side, and the digital side now pretty much covers everything.” Mr Jaishankar said, adding that “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.”

He further noted that “Digital payment platforms, for example, would become, in a sense, much more valuable.” adding that “which platform to use and share with whom, becomes an important question.”

The fourth aspect, he said, is mobility. Speaking about it Mr Jaishankar said, “I think the demographic unevenness of the world is beginning to bite us that there would be, economies where the demand would be high. In those countries, the talents may not be plentiful.”

“It could be different in other places, and what will happen, and is already happening is that we will be moving, perhaps in the next few years, to a much more integrated global workplace that many countries — even a United States 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,” the foreign minister explained.

“Businesses can move as well. We’ve already seen in the last few years,” Mr Jaishankar said.