Shouting match drowns out Jaishankar statement in Rajya Sabha | India News

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar‘s suo motu statement in Rajya Sabha on the latest developments in India’s foreign policy was drowned in loud sloganeering by opposition members, dressed in black, to protest against the government’s handling of ethnic violence in Manipur.

The noisy protests – which led to two adjournments in the first half – provoked BJP members to hit back with retaliatory slogans like ‘kaale kapde kaale kaam, nahin sahega Hindustan’ and rile the opposition with chants of ‘Modi, Modi’. The opposition parties responded with chants of ‘India, India’, pointing to their new alliance by the same name, and also chanted “pradhan mantri ko dhoond ke lao, mil jayein to sadan me lao (look for the PM, and if you find him, bring him to the House)”.
Union minister and leader of the house Piyush Goyal, while attacking opposition parties for not listening to the historical achievements of India on the foreign policy front, even read out a poem to mock their choice of “black clothes”, asking them if that signified their “black past, present and future or their black money or black deeds”.

When leader of opposition Mallikarjun Kharge was called to speak, MPs from the treasury benches took to raising slogans against “black deeds” of the opposition. An exasperated LoP said he had never seen a governing party obstruct the Speaker or LoP.
Jaishankar, while speaking to reporters later, said, “Foreign policy is an area in which both the government and the opposition work together… I felt bad that the opposition was not ready to listen. It seemed they wanted to criticise any and every achievement of the country.”
Earlier, in his statement, Jaishankar outlined the highlights and achievements during the foreign visits of the President, PM and Union ministers, including to the US, Japan and Australia. He said India’s stature was rising globally and the country was emerging as a “credible and effective” development partner. The minister said at a time when international affairs had become “unprecedented and complex”, India’s people-centric foreign policy was guided by the demands and aspirations of society.
“Today, the world recognises that when India speaks, it speaks not only for itself, but for many others. And that India speaks as a voice of peace, security and prosperity for all,” Jaishankar said.
Noting India’s President and PM had received the highest honours from other countries, he said, “If you cannot respect the President, the vice-president, the PM, and if you won’t allow the foreign minister to make a statement in the House; then it’s a very sorry state of affairs.”