Avani Dias: ABC journo 'booted' from one of Australia's major trading partners after being told her reporting had 'crossed a line'

An ABC journalist has been 'forced' to leave India after being told by the government that her reporting had 'crossed a line'.

Avani Dias had had been working as South Asia bureau chief for Australia's national broadcaster in India since 2021, but on Tuesday she claimed to have been effectively thrown out of the country over her reporting on New Delhi's alleged involvement in the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada. 

'Last week, I had to leave India abruptly. The Modi Government told me my visa extension would be denied,' she tweeted, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

'After Australian Government intervention, I got a mere two-month extension ... less than 24 hours before my flight.' 

In the Indian election which started last week, but takes six weeks to run as the country is so huge, Mr Modi is seeking a record-equalling third term in power.

Dias said Mr Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party made it difficult for her to report on the election and other news.

'There's always a feeling of unease that this sort of backlash could come your way as a journalist in India,' she said in the latest episode of her podcast Looking for Modi. 

'I've felt it the whole time I've been here. So have my colleagues from different publications.'

In April, ABC's Foreign Correspondent program featured an episode made by Dias where she investigated the death of Sikh independence advocate Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whose killing in 2023 caused a huge rift between India and Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were 'credible allegations' Indian government agents were linked to the June 18 killing, which took place in the carpark of a Sikh temple near Vancouver.

Dias said she was not surprised when a clip from her Foreign Correspondent program was blocked on YouTube in India.

'Now when you try to watch it on YouTube in India, it says "This content is currently unavailable in this country because of an order from the government related to national security or public order",' she said on her podcast. 

The reporter said similar stories from other publications had also been 'taken down'.

While she was waiting on her visa renewal application, Dias got a phone call from 'someone from the Indian ministry'.

She claimed she was told that her 'routine visa extension application wasn't going to come through and that I have to leave the country in just a couple of weeks. 

'He specifically said it was because of my Sikh separatist story saying "It had gone too far".' 

Dias said the caller even made a reference to her podcast, which 'felt really shocking'.

'This place my partner and I had called home for the last two-and-a-half years. This place we had loved so much was not going to be home anymore, and we were being forced to leave on the Indian government's terms,' she said.

The Australian Government lobbied on her behalf, leading to Dias getting a two-month extension just 24 hours before she was due to fly back to Australia.

But she said the rot had already set in. 'It felt too difficult to do my job in India. I was struggling to get into public events run by Modi's party. 

'The government wouldn't even give me the passes I need to cover the election, and the ministry left it all so late that we were already packed up and ready to go.'

The journalist said the Indian authorities made things difficult for her by design. 

'The Narendra Modi government has made me feel so uncomfortable that we decided to leave.'

The ABC said Dias will continue to cover the election in what is 'the world's largest democracy' from Australia.

India is Australia's sixth largest trading partner with two-way trade in goods and services valued at $46.5billion in 2022. 

In May 2023, Mr Modi was greeted by 20,000 adoring fans in Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney's west. 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese - who hugged and held hands with Mr Modi - was joined by NSW Premier Chris Minns to welcome the Indian PM to the cheering crowd. 

'The last person I saw on this stage was Bruce Springsteen... and he didn't get the welcome prime minister Modi has got,' Mr Albanese said.

'Prime Minister Modi is the boss.'