Washington: Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has firmly defended India’s right to respond to remarks made by US political leaders regarding Indian democracy during his address at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC.
In a statement, he emphasized that the US "should not feel bad" when India responds to their comments on its internal affairs. “If you look at State to State, government to government level, we think it’s important that democracies are mutually respectful. It cannot be that one democracy has a right to comment on another and that’s part about promoting democracy globally, but when others do that, then it becomes foreign interference,” Jaishankar said in response to a question at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a top American think-tank.
“Foreign interference is foreign interference irrespective of who does it and where it is not. So, it’s a testy area and my personal view, which I have shared with many, you have every right to comment, but I have every right to comment on your comment. So don’t feel bad when I do this,” Jaishankar noted.
The External Affairs Minister further said that the US and India are among the world's leading countries with democratic forms of government. Jaishankar said the world is very globalised and as a result, the politics of any country doesn’t necessarily stay within the national boundaries of the country.
"Now the United States of course makes a special effort to ensure it doesn’t. That’s part of how you have conducted your foreign policy over many years. Now as in a globalized era where there are also globalized global agendas, there are players who like to shape not only the politics of their own country or their own region… And social media, economic forces, financial flows, all these give you opportunities to do that. How do you shape the narrative? So you have a whole industry," he observed.
India slams USCIRF for peddling 'motivated narrative'New Delhi: India has once again urged the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to desist from its "agenda-driven efforts" by misrepresenting facts and peddling a "motivated narrative" about India. Responding to media queries, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) slammed the US federal government agency which monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) abroad and makes policy recommendations to the country's President, Secretary of State and US Congress. "Our views on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom are well known. It is a biased organization with a political agenda. It continues to misrepresent facts and peddles a motivated narrative about India. We reject this malicious report, which only serves to discredit USCIRF further," said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal. India has repeatedly and "regrettably" stated over the years that USCIRF continues to "misrepresent facts" time and again in its statements and reports "in pursuance of its motivated agenda". |
