“Is Jaishankar suffering from Stockholm syndrome?” Congress attacks Foreign Minister on China issue

New Delhi [India], February 22 (ANI): Attacking the Centre over foreign policy, Congress leader Supriya Shrinate on Wednesday launched a scathing attack at External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and said that he is the “most failed foreign minister of the country.”

Addressing a press conference, Shrinate said, “Jaishankar is the most failed foreign minister of this country. It has been two and a half years that there has been no US ambassador in India. You do G20, and do dramas but do not lie about the China issue. PLA only says this in the meetings the PM has said there is no encroachment. Is Jaishankar suffering from Stockholm syndrome? You keep welcoming China. A person suffering from this syndrome starts loving the one who harms him.”
Shrinate referred to Jaishankar’s interview with ANI where the Minister spoke about the border issue with China at length.

“EAM in an interview yesterday said, ‘We are the smaller economy and they (China) are the bigger economy and we cannot go and we pick up a fight with them.’ What does he mean? This is the most blasphemous statement by an EAM. If foreign countries are plotting, what are you doing then? Bangladesh is doing better on the economic front than us,” she added.

Hitting back at Rahul Gandhi who has been targeting the government over China’s aggression on the LAC in eastern Ladakh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said that it is not the Congress leader but Prime Minister Narendra Modi who sent the Army to the Line of Actual Control as a countermeasure to troop deployment by China and the opposition party should have honesty to look at what happened in 1962.

In an interview with ANI, Jaishankar said the Modi government had increased the budget by five times to ramp up border infrastructure. Referring to Congress and other opposition parties outraging over the Chinese building a bridge on the Pangong Lake last year, the Minister said the area had been under illegal occupation of China since the 1962 war.

He said China was a bigger economy and India was responding to the situation that China has created along the LAC in Ladakh by violating border agreements.

“They are the bigger economy what I am going to do? I am a smaller economy. Am I going to sort of pick up a fight with a bigger economy? It is not a question of reacting. It is a question of common sense. We had in agreement that we are not supposed to bring to the borders in large numbers…because it is in our interest to stabilize our borders or a situation it is not out of love affection or sentiment. It is a core calculation,” he said.

In a strong rebuttal to Congress over allegations pertaining to China, he said its leaders must have some problem understanding words beginning with ‘C’.

“When did that area actually come under Chinese control? They (Congress) must have some problem understanding words beginning with ‘C’. I think they are deliberately misrepresenting the situation. The Chinese first came there in 1958 and the Chinese captured it in October 1962. Now you are going to blame the Modi government in 2023 for a bridge which the Chinese captured in 1962 and you don’t have the honesty to say that it is where it happened,” said Dr Jaishankar.

Asked about the Congress party’s allegation that the Modi government is defensive and reactive on the China issue, Jaishankar dismissed the claims saying there is currently the largest peacetime deployment along the China border.

“If I would have to sum up this China thing, please do not buy this narrative that somewhere the government is on the defensive…somewhere we are being accommodative. I ask people if we were being accommodative who sent the Indian Army to the LAC (Line of Actual Control). Rahul Gandhi did not send them. Narendra Modi sent them. We have today the largest peacetime deployment in our history on the China border. We are keeping troops there at a huge cost with great effort. We have increased our infrastructure spending on the border five times in this government. Now tell me who is the defensive and accommodative person? Who is actually telling the truth? Who is depicting things accurately? Who is playing footsie with history?”,” added Jaishankar in an interview with ANI.

There had been a standoff at the LAC in Ladakh following the aggressive actions of the Chinese Army. The two countries held several rounds of military and diplomatic talks for disengagement from some friction points. The high level of troop deployment by China continues for which India has taken counter steps.