New Delhi: The Congress and the Centre on Saturday exchanged barbs over the reported remarks of Rahul Gandhi who had said on Friday that the Indian Foreign Service had become arrogant.
Rahul, who addressed an “Ideas for India” conclave at the Cambridge University, London on Friday, had said that some European diplomats had told him that the “IFS had changed completely, they don’t listen to anything and they are arrogant.”
The former Congress chief further said that the European diplomats had also told him that “the Indian foreign service officials were telling us what orders they were getting” and that “there was no conversation” between the two sides.
The remarks provoked External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar to hit back saying that the IFS had changed but this was more about confidence. “Yes, the Indian Foreign Service has changed. Yes, they follow the orders of the government. Yes, they counter the arguments of others. No, it's not called arrogance. It is called confidence. And it is called defending national interest,” Dr. Jaishankar tweeted.
He was India’s foreign secretary from 2015-to 18 before becoming the country’s external affairs minister in 2019. The Union minister’s reaction invited a response from Congress leader and former foreign affairs minister Salman Khurshid, who had accompanied Rahul Gandhi to the Ideas for India conclave.
Khurshid said he was surprised at the minister’s remarks and pointed out that listening to the others’ views was important and was in fact the theme of Rahul’s remarks. “Surprised at the external affairs minister’s response to the statement of Rahul Gandhi on European civil servants’ assessment of our incumbent diplomats. Surely, national interest too was foremost in his time in the IFS? The ability to listen is confidence, not the other way. Has the government said, don’t listen?” Khurshid tweeted.
“Was present at Rahul Gandhi’s London event. On the theme of dialogue, he flagged European civil servants’ comments. While EAM reacted that our diplomats follow government policy. But so they must have when he served in the IFS. Listen, absorb and respond is RG’s theme” he said.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also took to Twitter to target the government over the issue. “Yes, it is also called being subservient to the political masters in the face of foreign policy bloopers. Yes, it is called not being able to stand up to China in face of illegal occupation of our territory. Yes, it is called furthering the agenda of a party rather than the nation,” he tweeted.
At the conclave, Rahul had expressed concern that the Chinese troops were occupying Indian territory in Ladakh and were building bridges over there. This, he said, was against India’s interests and presented a security challenge before the country.
