S. Jaishankar's latest masterclass in Europe. Possibly the most deserving Indian politician who will not be PM

[rangeelaraja]

 

The entire interview is superb. But the best part is from 20:00. He refers to India as " I " ,  this guy lives & breathes India. Never seen such a proud patriotic FM.

 

Hats off to you sir. Forget India, I doubt there is a more erudite and sharp foreign minister anywhere in the world.   

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2022 by rangeelaraja

[Vilander]

I know this is great to hear in a Saturday bbq politics discussion over tea samosa, but not sure what he is trying to achieve by saying this. Is he pissed off with having to explain Indias position on Russia again and again ?. 

[Clarke]

1 hour ago, Vilander said:

I know this is great to hear in a Saturday bbq politics discussion over tea samosa, but not sure what he is trying to achieve by saying this. Is he pissed off with having to explain Indias position on Russia again and again ?. 

 

Yeah, besides the hypocrisy. 

[Clarke]

BTW why would one want him as PM ? He's great at his job in dealing with international politics, how is that helpful in the domestic tilak tarazu talwar mess ? Its like Yuvi being a very good ODI middle order batsman, so lets have him play test cricket, maybe as opener. Wait, we did that once 

[rkt.india]

Just now, Clarke said:

BTW why would one want him as PM ? He's great at his job in dealing with international politics, how is that helpful in the domestic tilak tarazu talwar mess ? Its like Yuvi being a very good ODI middle order batsman, so lets have him play test cricket, maybe as opener. Wait, we did that once 

He isn't a politician anyway. He was a diplomat.

[Lone Wolf]

He is putting India's position clearly & bluntly which is admirable. 

Rest Foreign policy is same ghisi piti 70 yaer old...  Although It is working well under current world scenario.   If he copy pastes everything it will also work. 

[rangeelaraja]

3 hours ago, Vilander said:

I know this is great to hear in a Saturday bbq politics discussion over tea samosa, but not sure what he is trying to achieve by saying this. Is he pissed off with having to explain Indias position on Russia again and again ?. 

 

He is just shaming Europe' naked hypocrisy and colonial hangover and telling them - we are 1/5th or 1/6th of humanity - we don't take sides, we are a side on our own.

 

Reminding them of how no alarm bells rang in Europe when there was a fatal clash between India and China in 2020 and how EU did not speak a word supporting India.

 

We don't need your effing patronoage, we are a 5000 year old civilization - your period of economic dominance of 300-400 years is an abberation  - and by India's 100th Independence anniversary - India will be a far bigger economy than the entire Europe - despite all the internal and external challenges that India faces - including the threat by a rogue communist China.

 

[sandeep]

2 hours ago, MultiB48 said:

He is trying to draw lakshmanrekha lol , doubt if it will work knowing how Indians are .Nevertheless it's fun to hear him at least try,that Indian origin Brit aunty looked pissed lol.And it's not as if they like us,they are the ones who built up China to extend their influence, now that it failed they want us to be the buffer and take the heat .

That "lady" is so ignorant - her source of information seems to be whats app forwards about "india funding russia" and an echo chamber of other "reporters" regurgitating propaganda lines, without knowing any of the actual facts.  And she's clearly upset about being called out on her ignorance.  She was searching for her 15 minutes by arrogantly attempting to "corner" Indian FM on the Ukraine question.  

 

Throwing around a phrase like "sitting on the fence" repeatedly shows the level of disrespect.  She would never dare to take this sort of a tone with any minister from a so-called 'white' country.  

 

To his credit Dr. J held back on his anger, but he was clearly annoyed, and justifiably so.  

 

What even is this "globesec" event in some po-dunk city in the armpit of eastern europe with the population, what half of Bombay metro area?  

[sandeep]

27 minutes ago, rangeelaraja said:

Reminding them of how no alarm bells rang in Europe when there was a fatal clash between India and China in 2020 and how EU did not speak a word supporting India.

He should have been a lot more explicit about it - and also about Europe's shameful silence on terrorism taking hundreds and thousands of Indian lives through the 90s and 2000s.  Even after 9/11 and attacks in UK, Europe, the European Union has never worked up the balls to call out Pakistani terrorist murders.  And now suddenly while they keep buying Russian gas worth billions of Euros, they want to whine and moan about a few barrels of oil bought by India?  The hypocrisy, the ignorance, the utter stupidity of the discourse on this has been a revelation.  

[Vilander]

1 hour ago, sandeep said:

He should have been a lot more explicit about it - and also about Europe's shameful silence on terrorism taking hundreds and thousands of Indian lives through the 90s and 2000s.  Even after 9/11 and attacks in UK, Europe, the European Union has never worked up the balls to call out Pakistani terrorist murders.  And now suddenly while they keep buying Russian gas worth billions of Euros, they want to whine and moan about a few barrels of oil bought by India?  The hypocrisy, the ignorance, the utter stupidity of the discourse on this has been a revelation.  

 

Exactly . He needs to be absolutely clear on it. This soft 1/x th of humanity my foot. India has its interests, call out shity hypocrisy as it is bluntly. Mention Chinese pakiatani covert support and proxy war on India and Indian need to mitigate it as they please. 

[Vilander]

4 hours ago, MultiB48 said:

He is trying to draw lakshmanrekha lol , doubt if it will work knowing how Indians are .Nevertheless it's fun to hear him at least try,that Indian origin Brit aunty looked pissed lol.And it's not as if they like us,they are the ones who built up China to extend their influence, now that it failed they want us to be the buffer and take the heat .

 

Pakistani people overseas are a shameless extention of their state rhetoric, Indians want to be accepted as white lol holier than queen Victoria, patheitc scum. 

 

Dye hair and try to fit in..scum.

[rangeelaraja]

3 hours ago, sandeep said:

He should have been a lot more explicit about it - and also about Europe's shameful silence on terrorism taking hundreds and thousands of Indian lives through the 90s and 2000s.  Even after 9/11 and attacks in UK, Europe, the European Union has never worked up the balls to call out Pakistani terrorist murders.  And now suddenly while they keep buying Russian gas worth billions of Euros, they want to whine and moan about a few barrels of oil bought by India?  The hypocrisy, the ignorance, the utter stupidity of the discourse on this has been a revelation.  

 

You are either with us or against us - this kind of insinuation and cornering of nation states,  forcing them to make binary choices against their national interest  just so that the EU/West can play out its grand strategic objectives is an old construct.

 

Nothing new about it.  It only gets more brazen and shameless when there is a crisis on their shores. 

 

Dr. J has been in diplomacy for longer than we have lived  and knows the art of being assertive with grace. 

 

We need the EU  investments  & technology ( military and non-military ) - so as much as we hate the hypocrisy, striking a balance to extract what we need is key. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ravishingravi]

2 hours ago, MultiB48 said:

Doesnt look ignorant to me ,they know exactly what they are doing.This is how their influence developed over the centuries .How is this any different from EIC giving ultimatums to rajas and nawabs back in the day or the cold war blocks. 

 

My first reaction was in line with @sandeep. My second thoughts are in line with you. 

 

The lady is the brown sepoy front eager to show her loyalty and also draw fault lines. 

 

in a way I feel India's growing stature with this insane pressure from the west. They are using every single tactic possible to make India shift. India is doubling down on oil purchase. 

[sandeep]

2 hours ago, ravishingravi said:

My first reaction was in line with @sandeep. My second thoughts are in line with you. 

 

The lady is the brown sepoy front eager to show her loyalty and also draw fault lines. 

she's clearly an empty vessel, not some overly chaalaak individual carrying out some sort of 'dastardly' conspiracy.  Is there an element of a brown expat overeager to demonstrate that she's not 'biased' - sure.  But all these things are tangential - the primary and overriding factor is simply ignorance, and regurgitating of self-serving 'talking points' without knowing the facts of the matter.   

[Vijy]

7 hours ago, sandeep said:

she's clearly an empty vessel, not some overly chaalaak individual carrying out some sort of 'dastardly' conspiracy.  Is there an element of a brown expat overeager to demonstrate that she's not 'biased' - sure.  But all these things are tangential - the primary and overriding factor is simply ignorance, and regurgitating of self-serving 'talking points' without knowing the facts of the matter.   

I am not so sure. a lot of media has lost its independence as a sector and increasingly mirrors the political masters that it serves or aspires to serve. hence, I am more inclined to believe that this clown is echoing western propaganda as it is convenient for her employer to ape them

[sandeep]

7 hours ago, MultiB48 said:

I am lot more "right wing" than Sandeep ,so not giving her much of a benefit of doubt and she is not just some individual having a conversation , pretty sure there are institutes ,think-tanks behind all this.

You do realize that you are echoing the sentiments of Immy the dim who claims there was a 'western conspiracy' to remove him from PM Kursi...

[sandeep]

8 hours ago, Vijy said:

I am not so sure. a lot of media has lost its independence as a sector and increasingly mirrors the political masters that it serves or aspires to serve. hence, I am more inclined to believe that this clown is echoing western propaganda as it is convenient for her employer to ape them

Sure, media isn't 'independent', and increasingly regurgitates propaganda with an agenda - but in this sort of a format, the questions that this lady was 'curating' were being fed to her by a team.  Even the short 28 minute video very clearly demonstrates how she's just a talking head relaying the 'questions'.   

 

Look at a map, the Ukraine war is literally on their doorstep in Eastern Europe - these are countries with generational memories of Russian invasion and domination.  For them, this is an existential crisis, one that is 'moral' in black and white, and they are not able to be objective about it.  I'm not defending it at all, mind you - so that's the context where any sort of action seen as 'supportive' of Russia, creates a visceral emotional reaction - one that professionals shouldn't allow to override fact-gathering and rational analysis.  But it is what it is.  

 

The bottomline is that these folks have gotten used to a century or longer of Eurocentric domination where 'their' world view, even if (dis)colored by emotional, geographic, cultural bias, somehow is the "normal" or 'right" lens through which to define any issue.  And because of that perspective, the Indian position on Ukraine pokes a finger in the eye.  I'm not surprised by this at all, but what I am surprised by, is the fact that even so-called 'experts', professors, high-level bureaucrats and ministers are guilty of this basic rookie error.  And the extent to which the "media" keeps doubling down on a flawed and inaccurate 'talking point'.

[randomGuy]

He is probably the best ever worldwide...

I also think India should import cheap Russian oil but be low-key about it...i think Arnab Goswami's shows might have made Putin and his supporters happy but think from Ukraines, Europes, US's PoV.

[speedheat]

LzUuBuw5a5k

 

 

[rkt.india]