India on Thursday (November 7) said Canada blocked an Australian media outlet hours after it broadcast the press conference of External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar and his Australian counterpart Penny Wong.
External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said the Canadian action of blocking the social media handles and certain pages of Australia Today smacked of hypocrisy towards freedom of speech.
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“We understand that the social media handles, pages of this particular outlet, which are important diaspora outlets, have been blocked and are not available for viewers in Canada. This happened just an hour or few hours after this particular handle carried the press conference of EAM Dr S Jaishankar with Penny Wong,” Jaiswal said in response to a question at the weekly media briefing.
“We were surprised. It looks strange to us. But nonetheless, what I say is that these are actions which yet again highlight the hypocrisy of Canada towards freedom of speech,” the external affairs ministry spokesman said.
He said Jaishankar, in his media interactions in Australia, had spoken about the allegations levelled against India by Canada without sharing any specific evidence.
“You would have seen that the External Affairs Minister, in his media engagements, spoke about three things. The first was a pattern of Canada making allegations without providing any specific evidence,” he said.
The spokesperson said the second thing he highlighted was surveillance of Indian diplomats happening in Canada, which he termed as unacceptable.
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“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 the Australia Today channel was blocked by Canada,” Jaiswal said.
Ties between India and Canada have been strained since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed 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.
(With agency inputs)
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