New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi’s comment is not the first by an Indian politician abroad who has made Controversy back home. As the BJP demanded an apology from Rahul for ‘defaming’ India in the UK, the Congress pointed to statements made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on foreign soil, saying it also put the country in a bad light. shows.
This battle of alleged defamation of India on foreign soil is not a new one. Rahul was at a press conference in London Said When asked about her role in the arrest of Morarji Desai, when her grandmother Indira Gandhi came to Britain after her release from prison in 1978, by senior journalist Suresh Gupta, she “refused to say anything negative about India”. done”.
At that time Indira was in the opposition. However, the allegation of refusing to speak ill of Desai in Britain is not entirely true, as the press report of Time shows.
Desai, on his part, created an uproar when he described the nuclear tests by the previous Congress government as a “wrong” step in his conversation with US President Jimmy Carter.
In more recent history, Congress MP and general secretary Jairam Ramesh, who has been leading the party’s communication strategy against BJP attacks, came into a soup when he made a remark in Beijing in 2010 when he was Union environment minister. They went.
ThePrint looks at some of these statements made by various politicians abroad, starting with those made by Modi.
Narendra Modi
On Tuesday, as another day of Parliament session washed out, the Congress released a list of five instances when the PM “embarrassed” India.
It was mentioned in one of the speeches that during the PM’s visit to South Korea in May 2015 as a part of the three nation tour when he addressed Indian diaspora in Seoul.
At the event, Modi said that earlier it was believed that taking birth in India was a punishment for the sins committed in the previous birth. “In the last one year, people’s perception about India has changed. There was a time when people used to leave India thinking that the country is not good.
In the later part of the speech, Modi Said: “There was a time when people used to think that what sin did we commit in our previous birth that we were born in India. Is it a country? Is it government? Who are these people? They would leave. We will see industrialists saying that they do not want to do business in India. We don’t want to live In fact, most people had one foot (of India) out.”
In Toronto, in April 2015 as a part of the same tri-nation tour, Modi Said That India was no longer “Scam India” but “Skill India”, one of the major skill development initiatives of his government.
,Those who had to litter, left after littering, but we will clean it. (Those who had to mess up did so and left. We will clean it up),” he said Said,
Similarly Modi in Doha in June 2018 SaidIn an apparent reference to the Congress, that corruption was a “termite” that had “hollowed out” India.
“Corruption has hollowed out our country, eating away at its roots like termites. Today the image of India has improved all over the world and the country is being seen with respect. Everyone is attracted towards India. You would see the change when people from other countries meet Indians,” he said.
Last year too, during his visit to Berlin, Modi had said that India had three decades of political instability before his government came to power.
“I want to talk to you about the capabilities of crores of Indians and want to praise them. When I talk of crores of Indians, it includes not only the people living there but also the people living here. The people of India ended the politically volatile environment of the last three decades by pressing a button. After 30 years, a government with absolute majority was formed in 2014 and the people of India strengthened the government in 2019. Said,
JaiRam Ramesh
On an official visit to China in May 2010, the then Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh was asked whether India would draw on Chinese expertise to implement hydrological projects in Arunachal Pradesh.
“India has drawn up an ambitious program of hydrological projects in Arunachal Pradesh, but it does not have the kind of experience that China has gained in building the massive Three Gorges Dam. Our capacity to handle huge hydro projects is very less as compared to China,” Jairam Said,
There was more controversy when he criticized Home Ministry’s “terrorist” and “cowardly” policies towards Chinese telecom companies like Huawei.
it was informed of At that time Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Delhi were “shocked” by Ramesh’s comments. Amid political backlash in the house, the PM called up Jayaram and pulled him up for his comments. Singh reportedly told his minister that he cannot comment on the functioning of ministries outside his domain, that too on foreign soil.
Indira Gandhi
A Washington Post Article From November 1978, describes Indira Gandhi’s visit to the UK – the journey after her release from arrest that senior journalist Suresh Gupta was talking about – as a “journey full of controversy”. He has been called a “Nazi” and a “dictator” during this visit because of his role in imposing a 21-month-long state of emergency that began in 1975.
The article said, “Gandhi was at times defiant and at other times defensive, but throughout her stay she gave notice that she did not want to give Prime Minister Morarji Desai a chance.”
When asked about the Emergency at a press conference, Indira said that “more people have lost their lives, property and jobs than ever since the new (Morarji Desai) government assumed office”.
At the time, the ruling Janata Party accused Indira of campaigning on the visit as it came in the backdrop of her famous victory in the Chikmagalur Lok Sabha by-election.
He also said during that visit that the Janata Party has withdrawn his 20-point plan to help the poorest of the poor. “…the Janata Party has turned things upside down in the last two years. Some of the things that are going on are really horrible, just appalling.”
He said.
A india today reports From the visit, Indira claimed to have launched a “savage attack on the Janata government” and even criticized the Western media’s coverage of her and her family. “They’ve always been against me,” she declared, the report said. “Not only against me but against my father and Gandhiji in the past.”
On another occasion, she told a reporter: “Now that fox-baiting is out of fashion in this country, they have invented another game: Indira baiting.”
morarji desai
During a visit to the US in 1978, barely a year after being elected as prime minister, Morarji Desai reportedly told then US President Jimmy Carter that the Pokhran nuclear test of 1974 was “fundamentally wrong”.
This episode was revealed in the recording of a conversation – unclassified Later – Between Desai and US Ambassador Robert Gohain on 27 May 1977,
“Mrs Gandhi was fundamentally wrong, but Desai did not want to criticize her publicly. The Prime Minister said that the question of another blast does not arise. Even if it was proposed that he would not do so – he would carefully consult the people – he would consult the US,” the record states.
(Edited by Tony Rae)
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