“Incitement of violence is not freedom of speech…” EAM Jaishankar amid India-Canada Row

Sep 30, 2023

Washington DC (USA), September 30 (ANI): External Affairs Minister of India Dr S Jaishankar, while addressing a presser in Washington DC on September 30, said that the visa operations have been temporarily suspended from India’s end as operating such services from Canada has been made very difficult. “The ongoing problem really revolves around the permissiveness in regard to terrorism, extremism and violence. This permissiveness is also reflected in the fact that some important extradition requests have not been responded to from their side, the fact that there are individuals and organizations who are clearly involved with violence and illegal activities in India, who themselves declared. I mean it is not a secret. They continue to carry on with their activities in Canada and most important, the fact that our diplomatic missions and our diplomatic personnel have been consistently and continuously intimidated in Canada. The fact that we have had to temporarily suspend our visa operations. It is just that they made it very difficult for us to operate those services,” he said. “We are a democracy. We don’t need to learn from other people what freedom of speech is about. We don’t think freedom of speech extends to incitement of violence,” further added the EAM.