BENGALURU: Giving it back to the critics questioning the falling ranks on India’s Freedom of Press Index and the country’s democracy index, Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar on Monday slammed that when so many other judiciary members over the years held legislative positions it wasn’t seen as a threat to democracy, however, now it has become a point of contest.
“Today there are many narratives, most of which are politically driven, some of them are country-driven and some people are finding it hard to get used to the idea that this India is different. This is not the same India that will listen to them. That is the problem,” Jaishankar said. He added that his response to such statements is “when people push you, you push back.”
He was speaking at the National Institute of Advanced Studies at the Indian Institute of Science about India’s journey towards Vikshit Bharat and its foreign policy.
Justifying that this is not the first time individuals in the judiciary or Election Commission have opted for a political career, Jaishankar highlighted, “Some time ago we had a former Chief Justice of India, Rajan Gogoi, join the Rajya Sabha. This was portrayed as though it had some implications for judicial independence. However, the fact is that other former CJIs – Ranganath Mishra and Baharul Islam did the same and it was not considered as a threat to democracy.”
When individuals start losing elections they say there is something wrong with the Election Commission, ED and CBI, he said. He added that there are also reports that the ECI is not as impartial as it used to be. Facts, however, show that we had a former Chief Election Commissioner MS Gill who joined a political party and also became a minister.
The minister also extensively spoke about how the sunrise sectors such as artificial intelligence, telecom, semiconductors and the electric vehicle market will help the country scale at a faster pace and reach the $30 trillion economy mark.