India’s foreign minister said the democratic world needed a debate on democracy, labelling billionaire investor George Soros “old, rich, opinionated and dangerous” for his comments on India that didn’t recognise its difficult path from colonisation.
In a speech ahead of the Munich Security Conference the billionaire investor Soros on Thursday criticised India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying India was a democracy but Modi was not a democrat. read more
He said there was “a debate and conversation that we must have on democracy”, including whose values defined a democracy as the world rebalanced and became less Euro Atlantic.
“He is old, rich, opinionated and dangerous, because what happens is, when such people and such views and such organisations – they actually invest resources in shaping narratives,” Jaishankar said in a response to a question about Soros at the Raisina@Sydney conference.
“It worries us. We are a country that went through colonialism, we know the dangers of what happens when there’s outside interference,” he added.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute think-tank hosted a one-day conference where Jaishankar highlighted in a speech the urgent need to “de-risk the global economy” as India took over the G20 presidency.
This causes us a lot of concern. As a nation that has experienced colonialism firsthand, we are well aware of the consequences of having foreign powers meddle in our affairs.
I appreciate that Jaishankar is bringing attention to important debates about the implications of democracy in India. It is important to consider the perspectives of different stakeholders in the conversation and to ensure that we are making decisions that are in the best interests of our nation.