This is the best summary I could come up with:
Australia quietly expelled four Indian spies for intelligence activities targeting defence technology, politicians and airport security protocols, according to an investigation by public broadcaster ABC.
Australian officials were secretly troubled after discovering Indian spying activities in 2020 even as Canberra and New Delhi outwardly emphasised strong diplomatic and trade relations.
The ABC investigation revealed that the expulsion of the suspected spies was kept quiet to avoid public embarrassment for the Narendra Modi government, which has sought to project India as a major global player.
At the time, Greens home affairs spokesman David Shoebridge said Australia needed to make plain to New Delhi that “these are clearly not the actions of a supposed ally”.
“Australia must have a robust, mature and honest relationship with India that includes being frank about the human rights and political challenges the BJP administration is creating both at home and abroad.”
The sheer number of expulsions of its operatives could place India on a par with countries such as Russia and China which are notorious for violating protocols overseas, ABC noted.
The original article contains 648 words, the summary contains 175 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
All that outsourcing industry to India is really paying dividends now eh?
Foreign agents operating on your soil and you have to keep it quiet.
A lot of people are expressing the sentiment that the government should have exposed and punished them, but quietly kicking out spies is par for the course. When this hits the media it’s generally a bad thing.
Everyone spies on everyone. Everyone knows they are getting spied on. You have to be careful how you respond because you don’t want to escalate. You make it known to the other government that they have been caught and you gently move them on as a show of good will. When your spies are caught abroad breaking laws you want them to do the same for you. Now that this has gone public, India lose face, which could cause future tension. Also, sometimes finding spies on home soil can be useful if you let them think they haven’t been caught.
The average citizen thinks you can use playground rules here, but espionage is all about being subtle.
