External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar speaks in Rajya Sabha.
Drawing a parallel between the Pandavas within the Mahabharata and model constructing as an train in statecraft, Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday mentioned that the Pandavas spent their lifetime in constructing a model, which enabled them to be perceived as moral characters regardless of orchestrating some deviant methods to win the epic war.
Speaking at a digital dialogue associated to his new ebook ‘The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World’ organised by the International Centre, Goa, Jaishankar additionally mentioned that delivering Covid-19 vaccines to different needy international locations, was an act of a good and good overseas coverage on a part of India.
“A lot of traditions and accounts of politics, focus a lot on outcomes and basically how to kind of play around with the roles, play short cuts, deceive and there is a premium put on deception. You know you are smart, because you fool the others,” Jaishankar mentioned.
“Now my point is, that works up to a point. You become a serial deviator from the norms and rules. At some stage people are going to figure it out. The point I make about the Pandavas is… look, they spent their whole life building (a) brand. At the end of the day, finally it is not that they do not do bad things, or did not do things which were not ethically or conventionally or morally correct,” Jaishankar mentioned.
The External Affairs Minister mentioned that many characters within the Sage Vyas’ epic like Dronacharya, Bhishma, Karna and Duryodhana have been killed by the Pandavas utilizing devious means, however due to the Pandavas’ general track-record of being moral and simply, such deviations have been ignored by way of historical past.
“Dronacharya was killed when he had put down his weapons, Bhishma was killed by putting a woman upfront, knowing that he would not shoot back. Karna was killed while digging out a chariot wheel from the ground… Finally, Duryodhan was killed by being hit below the belt,” Jaishankar mentioned.
“At the end of the day, because their record was good, they were seen as the more ethical party. The deviations… well it’s ok, sometimes you know people do these things, whereas if you make that a practice, you do not get that latitude. The world will not give you the same degree of understanding. That is why I said, being morally good, ethically good, definitely has its own value, but it also is a smarter way of doing politics,” the Foreign Minister mentioned.
Commenting on India’s overseas coverage initiative of offering Covid-19 vaccines to different international locations, Jaishankar mentioned, “I think for a country like ours, to say, ‘I am vaccinating our people, but I will help others who may not have access to vaccines’… I think it is good, it is also smart”.
