Mysuru: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday (May 7) termed the World Press Freedom Index “mind games” as he reacts to India’s low ranking on the press index. While responding to a query in regards to the low ranking of India on the press index, he mentioned that India has probably the most uncontrollable press.
“I was amazed at our number. I thought we had the most uncontrollable press, and somebody is getting something fundamentally wrong,” Jaishankar said, during the interactive session on the Foreign Policy of the Modi Government in Mysuru. As he compared India’s rank with Afghanistan, EAM said, “Afghanistan was freer than us. Can you think about? Look, these are all I imply, I see the democracy index, freedom index, spiritual freedom index, and press freedom index.”
‘Ways of playing mind games’
Terming the press index “mind games,”, Jaishankar mentioned that “these are the ways of playing the mind games which are like lowering the rank of the country whom you don’t like while others do not.”
This assertion got here days after Reporters Without Borders (RSF) launched their press index and ranked India at 161. While Afghanistan stood at 152. China drops to the second-lowest spot on the 2023 World Freedom Press Index, standing at 179th rank. Last 12 months, India stood at a hundred and fiftieth rank. This time, India falls 11 ranks.
‘Rahul Gandhi taking classes in China from the Chinese ambassador’
During the session, Jaishankar additionally took a jibe at Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and mentioned that he was taking courses in China from the Chinese ambassador. “I would have offered to take classes on China from Rahul Gandhi but I discovered he was taking classes on China from the Chinese ambassador,” responding to the Congress chief’s criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi authorities’s dealing with of relations with China.”
Jaishankar was referring to Rahul Gandhi’s assembly with the Chinese ambassador to India in the course of the Doklam disaster. He attacked the federal government, suggesting that new territory had been misplaced to China’s salami slicing.
“I know everything in politics is political. I accept that. But I think on certain issues, we have a collective responsibility to at least behave in a way that we do not weaken our (India’s) collective position abroad to do what we have seen in the last three years in China,” Jaishankar mentioned, including, “often very misleading narratives are put in.”
Jaishankar additionally hit out at deceptive narratives and misrepresentations, including, “We had, for example…a bridge which the Chinese were building on Pangong Tso. Now, the reality was that the particular area first Chinese came in 1959, and then they occupied it in 1962. But that’s not the way it was put across.”
“This happened in the case of some of the so-called model villages as well, that they were built on areas which we lost in 62 or before 62. Now, I don’t believe you will very rarely hear me say 1962, that shouldn’t have happened, or you are wrong, or you are responsible. What has happened has happened. It’s our collective, I would say failure or responsibility,” Jaishankar mentioned.
“I do not necessarily attribute political colouring to it. I would like to see is actually a serious China conversation. I’m prepared to accept that there are different viewpoints on that, but if you reduce it to kind of slanging match, what can I say after that?” he added.
(With ANI inputs)
Also Read: ‘India-China relations are usually not regular…’: EAM Jaishankar
