A day after Union Minister Smriti Irani alleged that billionaire philanthropist George Soros wanted to destroy India's democracy, today, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that he is an "old, rich, opinionated" sitting in New York.
Launching an attack on Soros for claiming that PM Modi had been "silent" on the Adani topic, Jaishnakar said, "... he still thinks that his views should determine how the entire world works...such people actually invest resources in shaping narratives." Jaishankar made the remarks in response to a question about Soros at the Raisina@Sydney conference.
Soros, in a speech at the Munich Security Conference on Thursday, said Modi would "have to answer questions" from foreign investors and Parliament on allegations the Adani group is facing. His speech drew sharp reactions.
Soros in his speech said the turmoil at Adani may open the door to a democratic revival in the country. His near 42-minute speech oscillated between climate change, Russia-Ukraine war, rumbling in the US, Turkey disaster and failures in China."Modi and business tycoon Adani are close allies; their fate is intertwined," he claimed. "Adani is accused of stock manipulation and his stock collapsed like a house of cards.
The ruling BJP said Soros was not only targeting the Prime Minister but also the Indian democratic system. This war is being mounted against India and what stands between the war and India's interests is Modi, BJP leader and Union minister Smriti Irani told reporters.
"George Soros wants a government that is pliable to his needs for making his nefarious plans successful. It is evident from his statements that he has declared funding of over one billion dollars particularly to 'target' leaders like PM Modi, which is significant," she said. Soros had announced that he will target India's democratic system and Modi will be at the centre of his attack, she said, adding he wants an order in the country which will protect his and not India's interests.
Soros has been a holocaust survivor who experienced ethnic and political intolerance firsthand. Born in Hungary in 1930, he lived through the Nazi occupation of 1944–1945, which resulted in the murder of over 500,000 Hungarian Jews. His own Jewish family survived by securing false identity papers, concealing their backgrounds, and helping others do the same. Soros, in an interview, later recalled that “not only did we survive, but we managed to help others.”
