Atmanirbhar Bharat is way to deal with changing world order: Jaishankar in Lok Sabha

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, April 6

The government on Wednesday said self reliance was the way to deal with the changing world order in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and India needed to reduce its dependence on the external world.

Replying to a discussion in Lok Sabha on the evacuation of Indians from Ukraine, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India's ‘Operation Ganga’ was unprecedented in the scale of evacuation and "inspired other nations to follow suit", adding that Atmanirbhar Bharat was the solution to deal with the emerging world order.

The minister while addressing member concerns about how the Ukraine conflict would impact the world order said, “Yes the world order is changing. It has been changing for many years. That is why G-7 became G-20.

“The world order changed due to Covid. Countries saw what happens when there is too much concentration of economic production in one geography, when there is not enough resilience in supply chains.

“The world order is changing because countries today worry about trust and transparency, about where is the data, which technology should they trust.

“The world order is changing because Afghanistan-like situation happens. So you are left with a problem close to our homes which we are worrying about more than countries who were there earlier.

“And now the world order will change partly due to the consequences of Ukraine. But what's the solution? To my mind, the solution is we have to be stronger, we have to reduce our dependence on the external world. It can never be total but the way to deal with the new world order is really Atmanirbhar Bharat.

“Atmanirbhar Bharat is not just economic policy. It is a Bharat which looks after its people, a Bharat which is capable of running ‘Operation Ganga’."

The minister reiterated that Russia is a very important partner of India for a variety of reasons.

"Our effort today is to stabilize economic transactions between India and Russia because this is very important for us. Russia is a very important partner in a variety of areas. I think all members understand that. At the moment there is an inter-ministerial group led by the finance ministry seeing how the payments issue can be best addressed. This is an issue where the finance minister will finally have to take a call," Jaishankar said.

Earlier the foreign minister defended the timing of issuance of advisory to Indians in Ukraine saying had that advisory not been taken seriously, 4,000 Indians would not have returned before the conflict started.

Jaishankar also informed the Lok Sabha that the overall signalling by the Ukraine universities caused 18,000 Indian citizens to stay back.

"It is natural for the House to question why everyone did not leave Ukraine in time. That is because if students returned during that time, their education could be disturbed and they could stand to lose. This feeling arose because many Ukraine universities refused to offer online courses.

"A Kiev university said it could not convert to online mode; another said it could do online only till February 25; Kharkiv university representatives were not even ready to meet us. Overall signalling was such that put Indians into a dilemma which led to 4,000 returning and 18,000 staying back to assess the situational gravity," the minister said.

Describing ‘Operation Ganga’ as the largest in scale he had witnessed in his 45 year long career, Jaishankar also spoke of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal phone calls to the Presidents of Russia and Ukraine in ensuring ceasefires for evacuation of Indians trapped in Kharkiv and Sumy.

The minister added that had the PM not sent four ministers as his special envoys to Ukraine's bordering nations, "the level of attention we received in evacuating our nationals, we would not have received".

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