India’s honorary consulate in Brisbane ‘not closed’

After the office of the Honorary Consul of India at Brisbane in Australia had to be briefly closed due to a protest demonstration by pro-Khalistan Sikh activists on Wednesday, New Delhi has taken up the matter with Canberra.

“There is an honorary consulate there and not a Consulate General of India. I understand a small number of protesters were there. For a little while there were some disruptions. But it is not closed,” Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said at a media briefing in New Delhi.

He said that the office of India’s honorary consul general at Brisbane in Australia was functioning normally providing necessary services.

The incident took place just a few days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed to his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese India’s concerns over recent vandalism of several Hindu temples Down Under – allegedly by the pro-Khalistani Sikh activists.

The Australian Prime Minister was on a four-day visit to India last week.

Also Read: PM Modi raises issue of temple attacks in Australia with Anthony Albanese

“We have taken it up with the government. You heard the prime minister taking it up with the Australian prime minister. And we have been taking up on a regular basis whenever such incidents occur. Unfortunately they have occurred a number of times,” the MEA spokesperson sad in New Delhi on Thursday. “Our teams are in touch and that's how we take this up quickly.”

Albanese promised before leaving New Delhi on March 11 that the culprits responsible for vandalism of the temples would have to face the full force of the laws of Australia.

The Shree Laxmi Narayan Temple in Brisbane had been the latest target of the vandals, who had defaced the walls of the shrine with slogans against Modi and India. Earlier, the Swami Narayan Temple and the ISKCON Temple in Melbourne and the Sri Shiva Vishnu Temple in Carrum Downs had been vandalised between January 12 and 23, with anti-India and pro-Khalistani graffiti being painted on the walls of the shrines.

The High Commission of India in Canberra has been conveying to the Government of Australia the concerns of New Delhi over the activities of the pro-Khalistan Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) Down Under.

The SFJ had held a referendum in Melbourne and Sydney in Australia on January 30 last in order to drum up support for secession of Khalistan from India. It had conducted similar referendums in Canada and the United Kingdom in the past.