Jaishankar takes a swipe at Rahul Gandhi’s China view

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said that some people deliberately spread wrong news about the China issue and the land that opposition leaders say has been occupied by China “was in fact occupied in 1962″, referring to the war during Jawaharlal Nehru’s tenure as prime minister.

Jaishankar took a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his comments on the China issue in Pune while launching ‘Bharat Marg’ the Marathi translation of his book “The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World.”

Asked about some leaders from political parties lacking confidence in India while speaking about China, he said there are some people in the Opposition who have such thinking which he finds difficult to understand.

He added that sometimes such people spread “wrong news” about China on purpose. “If you want to ask why they have no confidence, why are they misleading people, why they spread the wrong khabar (news) about China? How can I answer these questions? Because I know they are also doing politics. Sometimes they deliberately spread such news that they know is not true,” Jaishankar added.

“Sometimes, they talk about some land, which was taken by China in 1962. But they will not tell you the truth. They will give you the impression that this thing happened yesterday,” he said without taking names.

He was referring to Rahul Gandhi’s remark last September when the Congress leader had said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given “100 square kilometres of Indian territory” to China “without a fight,” and asked the government how it will be retrieved.

 Jaishankar also said sometimes some people say there is “soch me kami” (lack of understanding) in him but in that case, he will approach the military leadership, Army, or Intelligence.

“I will not call the Chinese ambassador and seek information,” he remarked.

When asked about the Indus Waters Treaty, Jaishankar said it was a technical matter and future course of action will depend on talks between Indus Commissioners of India and Pakistan.

” It will not be right for me to speak publicly about what is happening in Pakistan. This is a technical matter, Indus Commissioners of both countries will talk about the Indus Water Treaty. We can only discuss our future steps after that,” he said. India issued notice to Pakistan for modification of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) of September 1960 after Islamabad’s actions adversely impinged the provisions of the treaty.

Highlighting sea-change in India’s foreign policy, Jaishankar said that the country’s influence has reached beyond the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

He said, “Nowadays India’s influence has reached beyond the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, this is why I speak on history, big countries always think only about themselves, this is a deficiency in their DNA.”