Govt dealing with problems head on, says Jaishankar

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 6

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said the government had decided to tackle the long-pending citizenship issue, Article 370 and the Ayodhya dispute because it has a “less lethargic governance mindset” towards solving the stagnant issues of the past.

“We are a less lethargic governance mindset today than we were in the past. We are attacking problems with great deal of purpose and determination, not saying that these are problems we are going to leave for future,” he said while speaking at an even organised by the Observer Research Foundation.

Jaishankar also had a dig at former NSA Shivshankar Menon by observing “when we don’t have strategic clarity, we do things like Sharm-el Sheikh and Havana.” His criticism comes days after Menon at a press conference said India was “losing its diplomatic status” in the world.

The big learning out of China is that unless a society has mindset to act decisively to address its current issues, it won’t go up in the world. Lot of what the present Government is doing today is (tackling) accumulations of problems the country had not addressed.

“Look at the citizenship issue, it started 50 years ago, Article 370 went on for 70 years, and the Ayodhya issue. We tended to put it off,” he observed while urging Indian strategic analysts to look at the China story systemically. “China will impact the world more and it is important to understand its thinking. It is important there is a leader-to-leader understanding of each other’s thinking, the need to stay focused on building capabilities and capacities,” he observed.

“We need to stop and think, what was the last time world saw something like this? Last time it was Soviet Union and US become superpower. It is remarkable,” the minister added.