External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Against the backdrop of the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict and other geopolitical tensions, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said a 'storm' is brewing and it is going to get worse while asserting that it is absolutely vital to have a 'safe pair of hands' to take India through this very difficult period.
He was speaking during an interaction held at a Delhi Tamil Education Association-run school in the national capital, days ahead of the polling for the ongoing Lok Sabha election here.
The audience included many first-time voters. Jaishankar urged them to exercise their franchise and underlined that it is important that 'the world should be in your mind' while making choices.
Responding to a query on a narrative being used by some politicians on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) during poll campaigning, the minister said, "I do not think people are saying PoK will be part of India, PoK was always part of India."
"What has happened, PoK, for reasons we all know, is currently occupied by Pakistan. Now, what we are seeing, a lot of ferment in PoK. We can only speculate why are people getting excited in PoK. One reason could be that they are seeing the progress in the Kashmir valley and saying that their life is getting better, why should I be left behind -- maybe that is the reason," he said.
His comments came in the backdrop of several people demonstrating against high prices of wheat flour and inflated electricity bills and taxes in PoK.
Addressing a poll rally in Bihar's Sitamarhi Lok Sabha segment recently, Union Home Minister Amit Shah asserted that PoK belongs to India and the country will take it back 'at any cost'.
Before fielding questions from the audience, in his opening remarks, Jaishankar said the world is looking 'very difficult' today as there is a war going on in Ukraine, there are issues with Israel-Gaza, Israel-Iran, and India has border issues with China in the north, and with Pakistan, there is a cross-border terrorism issue.
In Asia, there is tension in the South China Sea and as a result of all of this, the economic situation of the world is 'very difficult', he added.
"It is very important that when we look at the future, that we think of how to take India safely through a storm, there is a storm around us. The storm is building, it is going to get worse. But it is absolutely vital that we have ... a safe pair of hands, good, sensible people who take us through a very difficult period," Jaishankar said.
Responding to a query on PoK in the context of the situation in Kashmir over the decades, he said the people of the valley should not be blamed for the problems that they have faced.
"It is a small section of the leadership there and the leadership here which had caused the problem.... Once you bring normalcy to Kashmir, totally integrate them with India, immediately what happens ... economy picked up, tourism picked up, people started going to schools, medical colleges started, international flights," the minister said.
All this could have happened before, but 'a small section of people wanted to keep it backward' as they were 'getting benefits' out of it and were propagating political things, he claimed.
"Kashmir is a good example of what happens when there is good governance," Jaishankar said.
He was also asked questions on the Chabahar port, the India-China relations in the context of a lingering military standoff in eastern Ladakah and on the role of youngsters in nation building.
"We have to find a balance between India and China also. In a sense, it is a very dynamic situation. In a dynamic situation, how do you create an equilibrium? The world is also dynamic ... yet we are trying to do in diplomacy what is very difficult in physics -- how to create an equilibrium really between dynamically active forces," the union minister said.
"One way of doing is to sit, discuss and negotiate, reach an agreement with somebody, and say, let us both agree to do this, let us agree not to do that.... What has happened for us with China in the last four years, even when we have reached an agreement on some issues, they decided, for whatever reasons, not to observe those agreements. So, it has created a problem. We do not make a secret of it. That problem, in fact, has led us in India to send thousands of soldiers to the border to defend the Line of Actual Control," he added.
Jaishankar, a former foreign secretary, has previously been India's ambassador to China.
"To me, the best way of dealing with China is learning to compete with China, building a national strength in India -- economic strength, technological strength, military strength -- to create a young generation with ... kind of skill and talent, and understanding the future world, which will enable us to deal with China," he said.