External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday slammed the Opposition for constant sloganeering when he was giving a suo moto statement in the Rajya Sabha on India’s foreign policy.
Foreign policy is an area in which both the government and the Opposition work together. ”Even if there is a dispute between each other in the country, we should keep India’s image united outside the country,” he told reporters outside Parliament.
Jaishankar said the Opposition’s conduct should be looked into. ”When it comes to national interest, politics should be set aside,” he said.
His statement in the Upper House could hardly be heard amid sloganeering by the Opposition. Jaishankar was sad that the Opposition was not ready to listen to anything. “I wanted to inform the House of the developments made in the past month. You saw a very successful visit of the PM to the US…I felt bad that the Opposition was not ready to listen. It seemed that they wanted to criticise any and every achievement of the country,” he said.
The Opposition MPs were firm in their protest over the Manipur issue, demanding an ‘elaborate’ statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the matter.
Jaishankar urged the Opposition to “display a united front” and said “This is India’s foreign policy, not any party’s foreign policy. So when we presented the achievements of India’s foreign policy in front of the House, we saw that the Opposition was not ready to listen at all.”