External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of taking lessons on China from the Chinese ambassador:
According to the report in NDTV, S Jaishankar, while speaking on 'Foreign Policy of the Modi Government,' said: "I would have offered to take classes on China from Rahul Gandhi but I discovered he was taking classes on China from the Chinese ambassador”.
Jaishankar as per the report was responding to the Congress leader's criticism of PM Narendra Modi government's handling of relations with China.
The report said Jaishankar referred to Rahul Gandhi's meeting with the Chinese ambassador to India during the Doklam crisis.
He attacked the government, suggesting that new territory had been lost to China's salami slicing.
"I know everything in politics is political. I accept that. But I think on certain issues, we have a collective responsibility to at least behave in a way that we do not weaken our (India's) collective position abroad to do what we have seen in the last three years in China," Jaishankar was quoted in the report as having said.
He as per report also said: "often very misleading narratives are put in”.
Jaishankar also hit out at misleading narratives and misrepresentations, the report said.
“We had, for example...a bridge which the Chinese were building on Pangong Tso. Now, the reality was that the particular area first Chinese came in 1959, and then they occupied it in 1962. But that's not the way it was put across. This happened in the case of some of the so-called model villages as well, that they were built on areas which we lost in 62 or before 62. Now, I don't believe you will very rarely hear me say 1962, that shouldn't have happened, or you are wrong, or you are responsible," he was quoted as having said.
"What has happened has happened. It's our collective, I would say failure or responsibility. I do not necessarily attribute political colouring to it. I would like to see is actually a serious China conversation. I'm prepared to accept that there are different viewpoints on that, but if you reduce it to kind of slanging match, what can I say after that?" he had said as per the report.
