EAM Jaishankar: 'Double standard is a very mild word for what Canada is doing'

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday criticised Canada for applying inconsistent standards in diplomatic relations and security issues involving both countries. Speaking on the ongoing diplomatic tensions between New Delhi and Ottawa, Jaishankar pointed out the contrasting ways in which Canadian and Indian diplomats are treated in each other's countries. 

Jaishankar revealed that India recalled its High Commissioner and diplomats following Canada's request for their interrogation. "Canada asked us to subject our High Commissioner to a police inquiry, and we chose to withdraw the High Commissioner and diplomats," he said while speaking at NDTV World Summit. 

The minister said the Canadian authorities seemed to have an issue if Indian diplomats were even trying to make efforts to find out what was happening in Canada on matters that directly pertained to their welfare and security. "But look what happens in India. Canadian diplomats have no problem going around collecting information on our military, police, profiling people, targeting people to be stopped in Canada."

"The license that they give themselves is totally different from the kind of restrictions that they impose on diplomats in Canada.” 

Touching on another contentious issue, Jaishankar criticised Canada's stance on freedom of speech when it comes to threats against Indian officials. "When we tell them you have people openly threatening leaders of India, diplomats of India...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.”

"Double standard is a very mild word for it. There is this thing that we will do it differently at home, we will do it differently abroad. We will do it our way, but that doesn’t apply to you."

Jaishankar's remarks come amid escalating tensions between India and Canada, following allegations linking Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen and Khalistani seperatist. Last Monday, India expelled six Canadian diplomats and announced withdrawing its High Commissioner and other officials from Canada after strongly dismissing Ottawa’s allegations linking the envoy to a probe into the killing of Nijjar.

Meanwhile, India's envoy to Canada Verma has accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of destroying the ties between the two countries, asserting that he had nothing to do with the killing of Nijjar and that the charges against him were "politically motivated".  

In an interview with Canada's private broadcaster CTV News, Verma said that Trudeau's allegations over Nijjar's killing were based on intelligence inputs rather than concrete evidence. "The problem is that when he accused, he himself admitted there was no hard evidence. There was intelligence. On the basis of intelligence, if you want to destroy a relationship, be my guest. And that's what he (Trudeau) did," Verma said.