Australian Opposition leader Peter Dutton with EAM S Jaishankar
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, December 16: At a time when India and China rivalary is seen to be shaping up the Australia’s political landscape, Opposition leader Peter Dutton faced scrutiny of parliament after a minister raised the issue of roping in an Indian PR agnency for an undisclosed trip to New Delhi. While Dutton is known to be a staunch supporter of India, Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had faced public outcry for his China visit despite Beijing’s unabated bullying of Australia’s naval assets in deep waters.
Patrick Gorman, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister of Australia and Assistant Minister for the Public Service, raised the issue of Dutton hiring an India PR agency to improve his image, as well as facilitating an outreach with the top Indian industrialists. “The leader of the Opposition has hired ‘PR Professionals’ as his communications partner and they sent out a very different press release to the Indian media which sets out that Australia’s former defence minister Peter Dutton is set to make a momentous visit to India accompanied by some 20 influential industrialists,” alleged Gorman in a statement that he made out in the Australian parliament. As mentioned by Gorman, ‘PR Professionals’ is a Gurugram-based public relations and advocacy firm.
A report in Devdiscourse published on May 24 had given an account of Dutton meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Dutton was quoted having said that Modi is a “great friend” of Australia. It saod: “Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton on Wednesday said he was proud that the relations between the two countries were growing at a faster pace. Modi met Dutton here during the third and final leg of his three-nation tour and called the meeting between the two of them productive. Prime Minister Modi thanked Dutton for the strong bipartisan support for the bilateral relations in Australia.”
But Gorman in his statement claimed that Dutton had not informed the government of his visit to India. Incidentally, Dutton as per the tradition is also a shadow prime minister of Australia. He reportedly holds close ties with India.
While Albanese also is known to have close rapport with Modi, his visit to China last month had raised eyebrows in the diplomatic circles. Chinese President Xi Jinping had warmly welcomed the Australian prime minister in Beijing. But a month later a Chinese ship was involved in an incident of bullying an Australian naval asset.
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