New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar Monday stated that the “faith” and “vote bank” have influenced the coverage of India prior to now nevertheless adjustments have occurred within the policymaking at the moment. He underlined that in the course of the preliminary years of independence, sure selections made by India’s policymakers ended up inflicting issues for the nation in the long term.
Speaking at ‘Foreign Policy The India Way: From Diffidence To Confidence’ in Hyderabad, Telangana on Tuesday, Jaishankar stated, “When we say an era of diffidence, it is not just an era of diffidence, it’s an era where we don’t have clarity, our nationalities. We somewhere, mixed a certain ideological outlook…what could be our contribution to the world.”
“We also do many things for the world but that cannot be at the cost of our national interest. That’s why ‘India First’, ‘Bharat First’ and ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ are two sides of the same coin, but we should never allow Bharat First to be compromised,” he added.
Giving the instance of India’s relationship with Israel, the EAM identified India did not have an embassy in Israel until 1992 and no Prime Minister visited the nation earlier than PM Modi. He additional opined that how “vote bank” influenced India’s coverage.
“Just think of a country like Israel. People say everybody is the same, we should not bring faith in any discussion. Israel became independent in 1948. From 1948 to 1992, we chose not to have an ambassador and an embassy in Israel. Why? From 1992, we had an embassy. From 1992 till 2017, when Narendra Modi went to Israel, no prime minister of India ever visited Israel. Think about it and then tell me that faith does not influence our policy. Is this not vote bank?” Jaishankar additional asserted.
#WATCH | Hyderabad, Telangana: At the discussion board for Nationalist Thinkers- Hyderabad Chapter ‘Foreign Policy The India Way: From Diffidence To Confidence’, EAM Dr S Jaishankar says, “Just think of a country like Israel… Israel became independent in 1948. From 1948 to 1992, we chose… pic.twitter.com/qzPppBmOUt
— ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2024
Emphasising the significance of abrogation of Article 370, Jaishankar stated that the Indian management had created a “vote bank lobby” that stored the particular provision intact within the erstwhile state. He additionally emphasised that it was a ‘non permanent’ provision and needed to be ended.
“Please understand the importance of what we did with the abrogation of Article 370. We have corrected an enormous mistake, we made in 1947. We created a lobby, we created a vote bank lobby, we created a Kashmiri lobby, some people were arbitraging,” the Foreign Minister stated.
“I would show to everybody in the Western press one page of the Constitution called temporary provision. You know the meaning of the word temporary, it comes to an end. There is nobody as blind as someone who doesn’t want to see,” he added.
He criticised India for signing the Nehru-Liaquat Pact with Pakistan in 1950 regardless of seeing the violent fervours of partition three years again.
Speaking on the problem of the Citizenship Amendment Act, with out naming it, he stated that after the variety of Hindus, Sikhs and different minorities plummeted since partition, India is attempting to offer citizenship to these individuals who have nowhere else to go.
“Partition has happened, you can see the violence that has happened and yet we agree with Pakistan that you will treat your minorities well and I will treat my minorities well. If they had treated the minorities well, there would have been no partition. He went to partition with the mindset of not treating the minority well,” Jaishankar stated.
“See the result, look at the dramatic decrease in the number of minorities. We had finally the situation, that you have minorities in your neighbourhood…whose only logical place to go is India. And yet when we do something very logical, we are correcting a mistake we made 75 years ago…I am giving people rights, I am not taking away people’s rights…I am telling people who have nowhere else to go that please come here and I will try my best to fast-track to do whatever I can to help them,” he additional added.
He additional stated that at the moment there’s a change within the mindset of India’s policymaking which is making the nation act, suppose, behave and stand very in another way than earlier than.
“You can see how much vichaardhara (ideology) shapes thinking and when we speak about diffidence to confidence…it is a different mindset. It is the change in the mindset today that is making us act, think, behave, stand very differently,” he added.
