EAM S Jaishankar today lashed out at the Opposition as his speech at the Upper House was disrupted. He questioned what kind of I.N.D.I.A. alliance it was which could not listen to India’s interest. He said, “Our effort today was to say that the country has progressed, our foreign policy is delivering for the people of India. We thought at least on this issue, the Opposition would put its political differences aside, would listen to it with an open mind, would put national interest first. If you claim to be I.N.D.I.A. and you are not prepared to listen to the Indian national interest, what kind of I.N.D.I.A. are you.”
#EAMSJaishankar #Sjaishankarlashesout #INDIAalliance
~HT.98~PR.153~ED.102~
#EAMSJaishankar #Sjaishankarlashesout #INDIAalliance
~HT.98~PR.153~ED.102~
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NewsTranscript
00:00 our effort was today to say look the country has progressed, our foreign policy is delivering
00:06 for the people of India, for the national good of India. We thought at least on this
00:11 issue that the opposition would put its political differences aside, would listen to it with
00:17 an open mind, would put national interest first. If you claim to be India and you are
00:23 not prepared to listen to Indian national interest, what kind of India are you? It is
00:27 something to have politics, I have no problem with that, I am also in politics. But I think
00:31 at times on certain issues people should put politics aside. I think it is a very sorry
00:36 state of affairs and it is really very very unfortunate. I gave a suo moto statement today
00:43 in the Rajya Sabha because we felt that in the last few months there had been enormous
00:52 achievements in foreign policy and some of the achievements if I were to spell out for
00:58 example for 40 years we have been trying to get a GE aircraft engine from the United States.
01:06 Thanks to the Prime Minister's visit we succeeded in doing so. You all know today how important
01:11 semiconductors are. We are putting really big energy, big effort into a semiconductor
01:17 mission because that is what will make India strong for the future. Now three very important
01:23 American companies made commitments to invest in centres in India during Prime Minister's
01:31 visit and we saw Google for example decided that its global FinTech centre would be in
01:36 India. Now I can give you many other examples in different countries. But our effort was
01:45 today to say look the country has progressed, our foreign policy is delivering for the people
01:51 of India, for the national good of India. So we thought at least on this issue that
01:58 the opposition would put its political differences aside, would listen to it with an open mind,
02:03 would put national interest first. If you claim to be India and you are not prepared
02:09 to listen to Indian national interest, what kind of India are you? I mean you are an India
02:16 which is prepared to sacrifice national interest. That is not India to me. So I feel it is very
02:23 unfortunate today that foreign policy which has long been an issue where different political
02:31 parties have come together, they may disagree on other things. It is one area where by and
02:36 large there has been national consensus, national unity. But there should be appreciation. If
02:42 Prime Minister today is honoured across the world and I spelt the term that he got the
02:48 highest ever award that France gives, he is the first Indian Prime Minister to get it
02:54 or Papua New Guinea or Fiji. So if he had the honour of addressing the Congress, he
03:02 is the only Prime Minister of India who has addressed Congress twice. So it is one thing
03:08 to have politics. I have no problem with that. I am also in politics. But I think at times
03:13 on certain issues people should put politics aside, should think about the country, should
03:19 be prepared to listen to where we have made progress because this is good for the country.
03:24 It is not just an achievement of a government, it is an achievement of a country. When our
03:29 Prime Minister or our President, I mean I mentioned President was given the highest
03:35 award in Suriname. If you cannot respect the President, you cannot respect the Vice President,
03:41 you cannot respect the Prime Minister, you will not allow a foreign minister to make
03:45 his statement to inform the house, then I think it is a very sorry state of affairs
03:50 and it is really very very unfortunate how strongly and how wrongly partisan politics
03:56 is pursued.
04:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]