Rahul’s comment on diplomats fans furore, Jaishankar hits back

AT A CONFERENCE IN LONDON, RAHUL GANDHI ON FRIDAY ASSERTED THAT INDIAN DIPLOMATS HAD BECOME ‘ARROGANT’

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday took to Twitter to challenge opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s assertion that Indian diplomats had become “arrogant”, saying they instead become confident and were defending the national interest.

While participating in the “Ideas for India” conference in London on Friday, Gandhi said he had been told by European bureaucrats that the “Indian Foreign Service has completely changed, they don’t listen to anything, they’re arrogant”. He said the European bureaucrats had told him that the Indian diplomats were “telling us what... orders they’re getting” and there was “no conversation” between the two sides.

Jaishankar said in a tweet that the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) had changed but this was more about confidence and countering the “arguments of others”.

“Yes, the Indian Foreign Service has changed. Yes, they follow the orders of the Government. Yes, they counter the arguments of others. No, it’s not called Arrogance. It is called Confidence. And it is called defending National Interest,” said Jaishankar, himself a former IFS officer who served as the foreign secretary during 2015-18.

While participating in the conference in London, Gandhi had described democracy in India as a “global public good”. He said he had an “enriching exchange on a wide range of topics” at the conference.

“We’re the only people who have managed democracy at our unparalleled scale,” he added in a tweet.

While speaking at the conference, Gandhi had said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continues to be in power because of “polarisation and the total domination of the media”. He also contended that India is witnessing an attack on the institutions that had built the country.

“We are not just fighting the BJP. It’s no longer a pure political fight. The BJP has 100% control of the media,” Gandhi said. “The Congress is fighting to regain India. It’s an ideological battle now – a national ideological battle.”

Gandhi was joined in the conference by several opposition leaders, including Sitaram Yechury of the CPI-M, Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Mahua Moitra of the Trinamool Congress.