India at crucial crossroads, says Jaishankar

Addressing a gathering here, he characterized the ongoing general elections as a testament to confidence, emphasizing "Foreign Policy the India Way: From Diffidence to Confidence."

Hyderabad: External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar on Tuesday said that India is at a very important inflexion point as the decisions to be made will not be just for the next five years but will be crucial for the nation, the society, and coming generations.

Speaking on ‘Foreign Policy the India Way: From Diffidence to Confidence’ at a gathering here, he termed the ongoing general elections a vote of confidence.

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“This, to me, is a vote of confidence. The guarantee is an expression of confidence based on what we have delivered for 10 years, the manner in which we are regarded across the world in the last 10 years and the manner in which we are preparing for the next 25 years. This is really the mindset with which we need to approach the world,” the Union Minister said.

During the talk, he explained how the change of mindset, leader and vision brought a transformation in the last 10 years and led to the emergence of a confident India.

He claimed that after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the then UPA government decided not to do anything as it felt that the cost of attacking Pakistan was more than the cost of not attacking it.

“In the defensive era, we accepted terrorism. We were angry… After the Mumbai (attacks), the national security advisor of the previous UPA government wrote that we sat, we debated and we considered all the options. Then we decided to do nothing. We decided to do nothing and the justification was that we felt the cost of attacking Pakistan was more than the cost of not attacking Pakistan’, ” the Union Minister said.

He further said that India has some challenges on the borders and the key to defending them is not to just posture in public but to build infrastructure, support the military and create a system that will respond whenever the border is under threat.

Taking potshots at Western media, he remarked that they are also political players in India’s elections.

“If they criticise our democracy, it’s not because they lack information. It’s because they think they are also political players in our elections,” he said and cited a media report, finding fault with the conduct of elections in summer.

“These are games which are being played with us. These are politics. These are domestic politics which is going global, global politics which feels they must now intrude in India how can these chaps decide who should be ruling them without consulting us,” he said

“They actually think they are part of our electorate. I think it’s time today that we disabuse them. The best we do that is by confidence. It is by confidence, it is by standing up to these kinds of attacks, criticism, rankings and reports because they will question everything. They will question your election system, your EVM, your election commission and, as I said, even the weather,” the Union Minister added.

Describing India as a voice of the ‘Global South’, he said the countries of the Global South trust India to take up their cause and positions in the world.

Minister Jaishankar said the country has a moral obligation towards some of the countries, which were under colonial rule and could not recover and rebuild as quickly as India did.