On Monday (21st October), External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke on the ongoing diplomatic tension between India and Canada and pointed out that the issue needed to be analysed both from a Western and Canada-specific perspective.
During the NDTV World Summit, he pointed out that there has been a shift in the power balance from overtly Western domination to the rise of regional powers around different pockets of the world (something which has made Western countries in particular uncomfortable).
“In the last 20-25 years, there has been what you can call a rebalancing or multipolarity. Many non-western countries have a bigger share, bigger contribution, and a bigger role (in geopolitics). And a bigger influence which will naturally come. So, the equations in a way between the west and the non-west I think are changing,” S Jaishankar emphasised.
He pointed out, “There was a time when in the conversation you were looking up and I was looking down. Now, the conversation is no longer like that. It takes a little bit of getting used to.”
“Today, when the natural diversity of the world has started to express itself when many more countries and particularly many more large countries like India or China have points of view and positions to take, there will be contestations, frictions and arguments. So, it won’t be so smooth,” the EAM added.
S Jaishankar then highlighted the Canada-specific issue, which has been the bone of contention between the two countries. He referred to the bombing of Air India Flight 182 by Khalistani terrorists, adding that the problem goes beyond recent geopolitics.
Hypocrisy and double standards of Western nations like Canada
“It was a reflection of something which was going on there. But at a time when many people felt that, it was all behind us, I think developments in (domestic) politics went in a different direction. And we are seeing, to some degree, the consequences of that” the EAM stated.
The career diplomat-turned-politician noted, “They seem to have a problem if Indian diplomats are even trying to make efforts to find out what is happening in Canada on matters which directly pertain to their welfare and security. But look what happens in India. Canadian diplomats have no problem going around collecting information on our military, on our police, profiling people, and targeting people to be stopped in Canada.”
“We tell them, look, you have people openly threatening leaders of India, diplomats of India. Sometimes the threat is not just verbal, it’s physical. So their answer is freedom of speech…But if an Indian journalist says the Canadian High commissioner walked out of South Block looking very grumpy, it is apparently foreign interference,” he further exposed Canada’s hypocrisy
