By: Bhupinder S. Liddar OTTAWA: Indian High Commissioner Prem Budhwar’s “undiplomatic” behavior is the subject of stories in Ottawa’s two daily newspapers of last week.
The largest circulation newspaper in the Ottawa area, The Ottawa Citizen, reports that “a Liberal MP says India’s High Commissioner grabbed her and told her to ‘cool it’ after she grilled him about human rights abuses in India. According to Liberal MP ColIeen Beaumier, the incident took place at the end of a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee meeting on Parliament Hill.
The Ottawa Sun reports that “The Indian diplomat was upset because Beaumier and other MPs had been grilling Indian Lower House Speaker Shivraj Patil about human rights violations.” The Sun adds that “While the latest incident isn’t as serious, a female Liberal MP can’t be too happy about the behavior on India’s High ‘Commissioner to Canada.”
The Ouawa Sun story also refers to another recent incident in Ottawa when a Korean diplomat harassed a young female in the Byward Market ‘area and was hurriedly recalled by his ‘government a couple of days later when it became big news in the local Ottawa newspapers.
According to The Ottawa Citizen, High Commissioner Budhwar was not available for comment.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 13, 1995
