Union external affairs minister S Jaishankar, at an event in Bengaluru, said that nowadays outsiders are interfering in India’s politics, while people of the country are going abroad and talking politics. Jaishankar’s statement was an apparent dig at Rahul Gandhi’s Cambridge remarks, as well as the recent events in which foreign leaders have commented on India’s “internal matters”.
"Many people in the world were very comfortable with how things were in India till 2014. In 2014, when things changed, they saw different people, different beliefs, different confidence. Suddenly, people started saying democracy… there is something wrong, the court is not performing properly, the election commission is not okay, the press is being restricted. Everything happened after 2014 only?"
“Today, the reality is…people from inside this country are talking politics outside, and people from outside the country are interfering in politics inside. This is what we are seeing,” the foreign minister said at BJYM Yuva Samvada in Bengaluru on Friday.
This comes in the backdrop of now-disqualified Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's remarks at Cambridge University in London that he was under surveillance. His statement had triggered a political slugfest with the BJP accusing him of maligning India on foreign soil and the Congress hitting back citing instances of Prime Minister Narendra Modi raking up internal politics abroad.
Jaishankar had also hit out at Gandhi for his comments relating to China during his recent visit to the UK, saying he is troubled to see the Congress leader "drooling over" China while being dismissive about India. Gandhi had earlier targeted the external affairs minister on the Centre’s approach to dealing with challenges from China.
Meanwhile, on the issue of the re-escalated Khalistan issue, with supporters pulling down the Indian tricolour at the Indian High Commission in London, Jaishankar said India would not accept differential standards of security.
He also accused the UK of not meeting the obligation of providing security to the diplomats of the Mission, which is expected of a country where a high commission or a consulate is located.
