New Delhi, July 11, 2022 (PPI-OT):In the backdrop of India slamming Germany’s criticism over fact-checker Mohammed Zubair’s case, former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid has advised the Modi government to avoid adopting a “touch-me-not” attitude, as India is not living in isolation.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the senior Congress leader said the government has been “truant” in ensuring that the law of the land is applied without fear or favour, and asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is “fond of speaking on everything”, does not talk about unity and on “how do we come together again”.
“If he was a silent PM that would be another matter but he is not a silent PM, he speaks, so why does he not speak on this. Why does he not say ‘let us come together, this country cannot succeed if we remain divided’,” Khurshid said in a media interview.
On the issue of the arrest of Zubair and dissent being stifled, he said it is becoming more and more difficult to be able to speak freely because the consequences for it are fairly “foreboding”. “You don’t get bail immediately, if everyone has to go to the Supreme Court, that is a worrisome thing,” he said.
Asked about Germany’s criticism of Zubair’s arrest and whether action such as that against the fact-checker or activist Teesta Setalvad was undermining India’s position abroad, Khurshid said when India gets appreciation from the world it is applauded and welcomed but if the world has issues which are negative about “us then we get very touchy”.
“You live in a world, you have to live by the terms of the world to which you yourself contribute and if something terrible happens somewhere we have just as much right to say that this is wrong,” Khurshid said. “You don’t live alone, you live in a collective world and in a collective world you will have to be sensitive about how other people look at your performance,” he added.
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