PM didn’t hesitate to move army despite Covid-19 during border tension with China: Jaishankar

DHARWAD: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has asserted that India’s stance on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which separates India from China, will remain undeterred.

He was speaking at an interaction session with intellectuals in Dharwad Sunday, organised by the BJP Mahanagar unit at Dharwad on Sunday. “We have serious a dispute with China and, after 2020, there is tension on the border”, he said, adding, “Our relationship with China is not normal and it could not be normal if there is a large military force at the Line of Actual Control.”

In context with the Chinese aggression on the Line of Actual Control, Jaishankar said, “In 2020, even when Covid was going on, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had no hesitation in moving the Indian Army and Indian Air Force in very large numbers to the borders to make sure because the only answer you can give to a neighbour who brings military, in violation of agreements, to the Line of Actual Control, is to counter deploy the military”.

Jaishankar also said, “Our soldiers were deployed on the China border in a manner in which that are well looked after and they have the right kind of equipment to deal with challenges they face. Until we get a satisfactory solution, our posture on that border will not change, we will maintain whatever we have to maintain because that is really the conviction of the Prime Minister”.

While answering a query on border security and relation with neighbouring countries, Jaishankar said, “We have many neighbours, with most of them relations are extremely good. With two of them, we have problems and I think we should not be hesitant in accepting that and describing that. “First, Pakistan where problems are very obvious. It is also a fact that we have been much more tolerant of it than we should have been”, he added.

The EAM also said, “We have to be firm, we have to expose them, we have to delegitimise terrorism. If we can’t take a strong stand, don’t expect the world to take a strong stand because we are the primarily affected party. The big difference after 2014, we have been absolutely relentlessly uncompromising on this issue”, he said adding, “For us, whichever the forum is, we have been strongly keeping terrorism as a focal point. Even in the G20, we have also made sure that world recognises today that terrorism is just not acceptable.”

‘For India, world is a workplace’

Jaishankar also highlighted that over three crore Indians or people of Indian origin are working or studying abroad, reflecting that the entire world is a workplace for India. He also said that when the world economy is struggling to recover after the Covid pandemic, India has achieved 7 per cent growth rate.

“More than three crore, three and a half crore almost Indians or people of Indian origin are working, studying, living abroad. For us today, the world is a workplace. Our students can go, our professionals can go, our blue collar people can go”, the EAM said.

“If you look at many of the big professions of the world, from people who are doing merchant shipping, to people who are air crew, to engineers, to people all over the world, there is no country in the world today where you will not find some Indians and some Indian companies working out there”” Jaishankar said .

He said what is different in India today is ‘Modi’. He said the world is impressed with India. “The entire world economy is struggling to recover after Covid. So, when they see a country with a big economy, with a 7 per cent growth rate, they tell themselves, ‘yes, this is really something which is quite impressive’. And they also see that this growth rate is accompanied by how much easier it is to do business, that our ranking in 2014 in the business index of the world was number 142”, the minister said.

He said, “Within five years, we had moved from 142 to 63. Then, in 2019, unfortunately, they stopped issuing that index. If they did, I can assure you will be at least another 20-30 places up”.
“But people are also seeing the innovation index that for them it is not just easy to do business, they are seeing the young people of India. They are seeing the talent, the startups. And we have gone up in the innovation index”, Jaishankar said.

The minister said that India is today the top 40 innovators of the world. “This is a country which used to neglect manufacturing, which today actually has a scheme for production-linked incentive which is attracting manufacturing from across the world and the premier example of that today is the Apple. The fact that the Apple, the iPhone is today made in India, that is a premier example, but that is one example. Many other things are today being made in India”, the EAM said.

“They read about the talent, the startups, the innovation, the unicorns in India. They see the educational progress in India. In 2014, we had 760 universities in India. In nine years, we have added almost 400 more universities. Today it is 1,130,” he added.

He said there is a huge sense prevailing in the world that India is transforming, adding that time is also coming when education in India will also globalise and the new economic policy that Prime Minister Modi has put forward will take us in that direction.

“There is this huge sense in the world that this is actually a transforming India”, he said. “When I speak about transforming India, it is not only that India is a country. Even within a country, some parts, some cities and some provinces are more well-known in the world than others. Probably, the most connected state of India is Karnataka. You are seeing it as a tech state, an education state. So, when we look at the progress of India, all these things are happening”, he further remarked.

Listing out big changes that would impact the world, the EAM said, “There is an enormous demography problem in the world. The developed countries have a demand, they do not have a target, and they do not have skills. So they are looking today for where there is education, talent, innovation, and creativity”.

“I can see a kind of education revolution that is coming. India has globalised in many ways. A time is also coming when our education will also globalise and the new economic policy that Prime Minister Modi has put forward will take us in that direction”, he added.

Stating that electronics today is actually the key issue in global competition, he said, “If you read about tension between US and China, a lot of it is about chips, the quality of chips, who will take the lead in what part”.

Highlighting India’s contribution to the world, the EAM said, “Covid has made health an enormous priority for the entire country. In the current budget, one of the big pushes we have made is how to rapidly increase nursing education. We see nursing as an area of great demand in India and abroad”.

Talking about how India tackled COVID, Jaishankar said, “In three years, we actually virtually from scratch, became PPE manufacturers, ventilator manufacturers, mass manufacturers, hydroxychloroquine exporters, vaccine producers, vaccine exporters”.

“It is the rise of an old civilization, possibly the oldest civilization, and when a civilization rises once again as a major power in the world, that has a very profound impact on the entire thinking of the international system”, the EAM added.

“For a lot of developing countries, they had stalk pile of vaccine close to them, but no access. It took somebody like Narendra Modi, to actually think of the interests of the entire world. Even far away countries, the first vaccine they received was from us,” he further remarked.

“A lot of people are impressed by things like Operation Ganga or the Vande Bharat Mission where we brought back 70 lakh of our countrymen from abroad. We are the only country that brought back people on this scale”, the EAM stated.

“I also ask myself what is the contribution of Karnataka to all of this and I think they should be very proud of the contribution because if you see today, Karnataka ranks No. 1 in ease of doing business, Karnataka ranks No. 1 in startups, Karnataka ranks No. 1 in Innovation Index, and Karnataka ranks No. 1 in the number of unicorns,” he said.

Mentioning about India’s Operation Dost to extend assistance to Turkey and Syria after devastating quakes and aftershocks in the region, Jaishankar said, “There was an earthquake in Turkey, and we were among the early countries to respond. There was a school in Turkey where our army had set up a hospital. If you hear what the Turkish people have to say about the assistance and relief that was provided, these are the moments that you really feel proud of what the change has happened in India”.

The Indian Government sent tons of relief material to both Syria and Turkey in collaboration with the Indian Army as part of the operation. Under this, India sent relief materials to Turkey, a mobile hospital, and specialised search and rescue teams.250 Army personnel were also deployed in the worst-hit areas of Turkey and Syria. (ANI)