They will not say Christian Nationalist Government, Jaishankar Jabs Foreign Newspapers

New Delhi:

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, S. Jaishankar slammed foreign tabloids for retaining such epithets as the “Hindu nationalist” of the Indian government.

“If you read foreign newspapers, they use words like Hindu nationalist government. In America or Europe, they wouldn’t say Christian nationalists… Those adjectives are for us. They don’t understand that this country is ready to do more with the world and not less with the world,” he said. Jaishankar.

Jaishankar was in Pune for the release of his English book “The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World”, which has been translated into Marathi as “Bharat Marg”.

The Marathi version of Jaishankar was promulgated by the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis.

Jaishankar said he is proud of it and doesn’t think there is anything to apologize for.

“If you look at the past nine years, there is no doubt that government and politics today are much more nationalist… I don’t think there is anything to apologize for. The same nationalists helped countries abroad and got ahead of disasters in other countries.”

Notably, there is a row over the BBC’s controversial documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ‘The Modi Question’.

India on Thursday denounced the BBC’s controversial documentary series on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “propaganda work” aimed at promoting a discredited narrative.

This documentary show, based on some internal reports in the UK, shows the colonial mentality, said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi at a weekly briefing.

“We think this is a piece of propaganda aimed at pushing a certain discredited narrative. Bias, lack of objectivity and frankly persistent colonial mentality is an overdue phenomenon,” Bagge said in response to a question about the series of documentaries.

The British national broadcaster BBC broadcast a two-part series on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat. The documentary sparked outrage and was removed from select platforms.

“So if next time I read in a foreign newspaper because they always, the foreign newspapers, like to use words like Hindu nationalist commentary, okay?” Jaishankar said.

“So the next time you read it, ask yourself, how wrong they are in reading me that they actually don’t understand that this country is poised to do more with the world, not less with the world,” he advised.

The external affairs minister said that everyone in the country is associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during India’s G20 presidency.

“We want to show the world that this G20 will have 200 meetings. With these 200 meetings, we want to show the world, please, world, come see India. See the changes in India, know how much enthusiasm and positive vibes there are for the world in India.” Jaishankar said.

He also gave an insight into Congress leader Rahul Gandhi while referring to China.

“Why doesn’t the opposition talk about the areas occupied by China in 1962…. they never talk about it?” Adding, “I will not go to the Chinese ambassador for input, but my military leadership.”

(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by the NDTV staff and was published from a syndicated feed.)