‘Bad habits’, countries should not comment on others’ internal affairs: S Jaishankar

Ahmedabad, April 2

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said countries should refrain from making political statements on others’ internal affairs, and if a foreign country comments on India’s internal politics, it will get a “very strong reply”.

Replying to a question about envoys of the US and Germany as well as a United Nations official commenting on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate, he said India had made it clear that it objected to such statements.

He also called China’s action of issuing a list of new names for places in Arunachal Pradesh as “senseless”, and said the northeastern state is and will always be a part of India.

“Somebody asked a person from the UN (about Kejriwal’s arrest), and he gave some reply. But in other cases, I would say very frankly these are old habits, these are bad habits,” Jaishankar told reporters here.

“There is a certain ‘maryada’ (restraint) among countries. We are sovereign countries, we should not be interfering in each other’s internal affairs, we should not be passing comments about each other’s politics,” he added.

There are certain etiquettes, conventions and practices which must be followed in international relations, the minister said, adding that if a foreign country comments on India’s politics, “they will get a very strong reply from us, and that is what has happened”.

“…we sincerely urge all the countries in the world that by all means you have your views about the world, but no country has the right to comment on another country’s politics especially in situations like this,” Jaishankar said.