JOIN USIndia no longer needs approval from others, says Jaishankar amid criticism over Russia-Ukraine conflict
India no longer needs approval from other nations and it should engage others on its own terms, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government drew flak from the western nations for its refusal to condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
“We have to be confident about who we are. I think it is better to engage the world on the basis of who we are,” Jaishankar said at the Raisina Dialogue being held by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.
Apart from dismissing western criticism of India's stand on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he sought to respond to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent comment that President Joe Biden’s administration was monitoring human rights abuses in India. “This idea that others define us, somehow we need to get the approval of other quarters, I think that is an era we need to put behind us,” the external affairs minister said.
The US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its latest report on Monday reiterated its 2020 and 2021 recommendations asking the Biden Administration to designate India as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ in view of the drastic downward turn in religious freedom in the country.
Jaishankar, however, boasted of India’s journey as a democratic nation over the past 75 years since its Independence in 1947. He also highlighted India’s role in promoting democracy in its neighbourhood in South Asia.
“There was a time in this part of the world that we were pretty much the only democracy. If democracy is global today, we see it is global today, I think, in some measure, that credit is due to India,” the diplomat-turned-politician said participating in a panel discussion at the geopolitical conference, held by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in association with the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) – a think-tank based in New Delhi.
He took a subtle dig at the erstwhile Congress-led Governments in the Centre as he stressed on looking back on where the nation had come up short. “One, clearly we did not pay the kind of attention to our social indicators, our human resources as we should have,” he said, adding that “we did not concentrate on manufacturing and technology strengths as we should have. And three, in terms of foreign policy, probably, in the mix of various elements, we did not give as much importance, as much weight to hard security as we should have”.
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