"What would Opposition want us to do, not abrogate Art 370 because it will upset Pakistan, asks External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, adding, "...Or talk to Pakistan, ignoring that they do Terrorism. Actually, that's what the Opposition was doing".
Dr Jaishankar told News18 news channel in their Rising Bharat Summit that: "The Foreign policy is not run as a global popularity exercise. If you have an appeasement mentality at home; you will take it outside".
"...get out of this cult worship (of Nehru) that everything...was great" - Dr Jaishankar
Asked about the 'legacy' of the foreign policy of the government of India in the early years after independence, Jaishankar said, "You got Pakistan wrong, you got China wrong, you got US right, and we had a great foreign policy. So, put that aside."
"I am not saying that today, benefit of 2024, let's look back 1954 or 1950, I am saying, somebody in 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, as you were taking those decisions, stood up and said, 'please, Mr Nehru, what you are doing, have you looked at this aspect of it'.
So this is not hindsight, these are Nehru's contemporaries who are questioning decisions which Nehru was taking at that point of time," he said.
Jaishankar, who served as the foreign secretary, cited Syama Prasad Mookerjee's views on the Nehru-Liaquat Pact and views of B R Ambedkar on Nehru's decisions to buttress his claim. "So, this is not hindsight, this is not a political polemic. I am placing before the younger generation, historical situation, which is what I called the 'road not taken', that road was available and that road was marked," he said.
"Now, I am not saying they were no-brainers, there are pluses and minuses, but we need to get out of this cult worship that everything from 1946 till, pick your year... that these were great years, and we did splendidly and if anything went wrong, other people were to blame.
"But Nehru's foreign policy is such an impeccable theology that even today, whoever comes to power must follow it. And, any deviation is somewhere wrong," Mr Jaishankar said.
Asked if India not facing a two-front situation today, he said, "We have...we have always been, it is we who were in denial." The external affairs minister's strong remarks on the opposition comes ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
"Companies are audited. After all, a country should also be audited, policies should be audited. People should look at what happened in the past with an open mind and a critical mind," he said, adding he would also be very happy to discuss the last 10 years with anyone.
He argued that in the early years after independence, "it was very much a Nehruvian ideological bubble. Nehru was against America, so everybody was against America. Nehru said China is a great friend, everybody said China is a great friend. So, the vestiges of that continue, even today".
"I mean, you have a concept called 'Chindia', and many of you will remember, who put that concept forward," Dr Jaishankar said.
Amid criticism of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) from the US and other parts of the globe, External Affairs Minister Dr Jaishankar has said it is important to put it in the context of the Partition, and underlined that there are a "number of examples" in which many countries have fast-tracked citizenship.
During an interaction at the 'India Today Conclave 2024', he also responded to questions on an Indian national, facing charges in a murder-for-hire plot to kill a Khalistani separatist on American soil and US Ambassador Eric Garcetti's remarks a day earlier on its impact on US-India ties.
"You keep using India and Canada seamlessly, I would draw a line there, for a variety of reasons. Most notably that all said and done, American politics has not given that kind of space to violent extremist views and activities which Canada has done. So, I don't think it's fair to the US, to lump them together. I would distinguish between the two," Jaishankar said.
The relations between India and Canada saw bitterness last year over allegations linked with the killing of Khalistani separatist and designated terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June in the Canadian city of Surrey. India denied the allegation as "absurd and motivated".
Jaishankar also responded to criticisms surrounding the CAA from Washington and other parts of the world. The US said it is concerned about the notification of CAA in India and is closely monitoring its implementation.
"Look, I am not questioning the imperfections or otherwise of their democracy or their principles or lack of it. I am questioning their understanding of our history. If you hear comments from many parts of the world, it is as if the Partition of India never happened, there were no consequential problems which the CAA is supposed to address," Jaishankar said.
So, if you take a problem and "remove all the historical context from it, sanitise it and make it into a political correctness" argument, and say --
'I have principles and don't you have principles', "I have principles too, and one of them is obligation to people who were let down at the time of Partition. And, I think, the Home Minister spoke very eloquently on it yesterday", he added.
Garcetti in response to a question on CAA during a panel discussion at the conclave on Friday, had said the principles of religious freedom and of equality under the law is a cornerstone of democracy.
"And, that is why we look at these things, it will be easier not to look at our friends. We invite you to do the same with our imperfect democracy, it is not a one-way street. But, you cannot give up on principles, no matter how close you are with friends...," he had said.
Jaishankar while responding to the criticism on CAA, also cited a "number of examples" to make his point.
He said he has a problem when people don't hold up a mirror to their own policies, as he cited Jackson-Vanik amendment, which was about Jews from Soviet Union, the Lautenberg Amendment, Specter Amendment and
---"fast-tracking of Hungarians after the Hungarian revolution, fast-tracking of Cubans in 1960s".
"So, if you were to ask me, have other countries, other democracies, fast-tracked on the basis of ethnicity, faith, social attributes, I can give you any number of examples," the minister said.
He sought to put the context of the 1947 Partition which cleaved the Indian subcontinent into two independent nations India and Pakistan, and led to a massive bloodshed resulting in large-scale migrations across the border.
"Now, if I were to also say, after all why is the situation important, because very often when you have something very cataclysmic, something really very major, it is not possible to deal with all the consequences right then and there.
"The leadership of this country had promised to these minorities, that if you have a problem, you are welcome to come to India. The leadership thereafter didn't deliver on the promise," he added.
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