Month: October 2023

New Delhi (TIP)- The Canadian government announced on Thursday, October 19, that 41 of its diplomats in India have departed, a day prior to the deadline set by New Delhi for their withdrawal, failing which they were liable to lose diplomatic immunity. However, Ottawa is unlikely to escalate the diplomatic row, as Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly said Ottawa has “decided not to reciprocate” even as the development was defined as “expulsion” of the Canadian diplomats.
The diplomatic drawdown came after India sought “parity” in the strength of Canada’s diplomatic presence by bringing down those stationed in the country from 62 to 21.
Speaking at a press conference in Ottawa on October 19, Joly said, “I can confirm that India has formally conveyed its plan to unilaterally remove diplomatic immunities for all but 21 Canadian diplomats and dependents in Delhi by tomorrow, October 20.”
She added, “Given the implications of India’s actions on the safety of our diplomats, we have facilitated their safe departure from India.” “This means that our diplomats and their families have now left and are on their way home,” she said.
In a statement from the country’s foreign ministry, Global Affairs Canada, Joly said, “India accredited each and every one of the Canadian diplomats they are now expelling. And all of those diplomats were carrying out their duties in good faith, and to the greater benefit of both countries.”
The original deadline for bringing down the number of Canadian diplomats in India was October 10. But Canada had let that deadline elapse, while engaging in private negotiations with India. However, those talks appear to have failed. However, she added that Canada will “continue to engage” with India, as “Now more than ever, we need to have diplomats on the ground and we need to talk to one another.” Joly said, “Canada will continue to defend international law, which applies equally to all states. Canada will continue to engage India and remains committed to dialogue as we move forward.”
She also said the decision by India was unprecedented. “A unilateral revocation of diplomatic privileges and immunities is contrary to international law. It is a clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” she argued. She added that threatening to strip such immunity was “unreasonable and escalatory” since that allows “diplomats to do their work, without fear of reprisal or arrest from the country they are in.”
Joly was joined at the press conference by Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marc Miller. Canada will have to “pause” in-person services at its consulates in Chandigarh, Bengaluru and Mumbai “until further notice”. “The lower numbers of staff will have short-term repercussions, and I believe medium-term as well,” Miller said. India accounts for the largest cohort of international students and permanent residents in Canada and those applications processes could be adversely impacted. India had already announced in September that it was indefinitely stopping issuance of visas to Canadian nationals.
The Global Affairs Canada statement said “this mass expulsion will impact our operations, and client service will be affected.” “
“India’s decision will impact levels of services to citizens of both countries. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will continue to accept and process applications from India. However, certain application requirements will need to be completed locally or on-site in a secure environment. As a result, the reduction in the size of the IRCC team will affect service standards for residents of India,” the statement elaborated.
Five IRCC staff will remain in India and focus on work that requires an in­-country presence such as urgent processing, visa printing, risk assessment and overseeing key partners, including visa application centres, panel physicians and clinics that perform immigration medical exams. The rest of the work and staff will be reassigned across its global processing network.
Source: HT

New Delhi (TIP)- Darshan Hiranandani, the CEO of real estate-to-energy group Hiranandani, who has been at the centre of the ‘cash for questions’ scandal involving Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, appears to have turned approver. In a signed “affidavit”, he said he used the Rajya Sabha MP’s Parliamentary login to “directly” post questions for the BJP-led central government, news agency PTI reported Thursday, October 19.
The affidavit, reportedly to the Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha, comes ahead of the Friday hearing in the defamation case filed by Mahua Moitra against BJP MP Nishikant Dubey who had accused her of taking bribe from a business person in lieu of asking questions in Parliament as an MP. Dubey and advocate earlier this week alleged that Moitra took favours from Hiranandani to raise questions in Parliament. She responded by filing a defamation suit before the Delhi High Court against them.
In his ‘affidavit’, Darshan claimed that he used Moitra’s Parliamentary login after state-owned behemoth Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) booked capacity at the Gujarat-based conglomerate’s Dhamra LNG import facility in Odisha and not at his firm’s planned facility, PTI reported citing the affidavit. He claimed that Moitra “made frequent demands” including “expensive luxury items, providing support on renovation of her officially allotted bungalow in Delhi, travel expenses, holidays, etc, apart from providing secretarial and logistical help for her travels within India and to different parts of the world.”
Hiranandani said he met Moitra at the Bengal Global Business Summit in 2017 when she was an MLA, and since then she became a “close personal friend” over the years whom he had expected to use for getting business in states ruled by opposition parties, PTI reported, quoting the ‘affidavit’.
“She shared with me her email ID as Member of Parliament, so that I could send her information, and she could raise the questions in the Parliament. I went along with her proposal,” he said in the affidavit. She “provided me with her Parliament login and password so that I could post the questions directly on her behalf when required.”
Hiranandani claimed that Moitra knew about IOC choosing Dhamra over his company’s LNG terminal. “Based on this information, Moitra drafted a few questions that would have elements to embarrass the government by targeting the Adani group; questions that she could raise in Parliament,” he said in the affidavit, reported PTI. “Moitra was very ambitious and wanted to make a name for herself at the national level,” he said of her winning the Lok Sabha election from Krishnanagar in West Bengal in 2019.
“She was advised by her friends and advisors that the shortest possible route to fame is by personally attacking Modi.” However, the prime minister enjoyed “an impeccable reputation and was not giving any opportunity to anyone to attack him in policy, governance or personal conduct,” he said, according to PTI.

New Delih (TIP)- The Supreme Court on Thursday , October 19, directed all states and Union Territories to appoint an officer in every district in four weeks to oversee effective implementation of the Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, to check sexual harassment faced by women employees.
Ordering the Women and Child Development Ministry of all states and UTs to consider identifying a “nodal person” within the department to oversee and aid in coordination with the Union Government as envisaged under the POSH Act, a Bench led by Justice S Ravindra Bhat asked them to submit a consolidated report on compliance of its directions to the Centre in eight weeks.
The Bench directed the Centre to consolidate various reports, identify any lapses in compliance by states and try to remedy it, before filing a consolidated affidavit of compliance — detailing the states’ compliance, and the Centre’s action taken in regard to the direction — in 12 weeks. It ordered the Centre and states to set aside financial resources to develop educational, communication and training material for spreading awareness about the provisions of the Act.
A circular/bulletin containing the names of all district officers and their contact details along with a district-wise chart of various nodal officers and their contact details must be uploaded on the department’s website in a conspicuous location in six weeks, the top court ordered.
The Bench, which also included Justice Dipankar Gupta, listed the matter for further hearing in the first week of February 2024.
The directions came on a PIL filed by ‘Initiatives for Inclusion Foundation’ and others in 2017 seeking directions to the Centre and states to take measures for proper implementation of provisions of the 2013 Act and the Rules framed under it. The top court asked the Centre to consider amending the Rules, so as to operationalise Section 26 of the Act, by recognising a reporting authority, and/or a fine collecting authority.
It also wanted the Centre to consider amending the Rules so as to identify one department (preferably the Women and Child Department), and creating a “nodal person” post within the department to be responsible for coordination. Source: TNS