Lord Krishna, Hanuman greatest diplomats of world: S Jaishankar

Pune, Jan 29: Lord Krishna and Lord Hanuman were the greatest diplomats of the world, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday.

During an interaction with the audience in Pune in Maharashtra during the launch of 'Bharat Marg', the Marathi translation of his book 'The India Way', Jaishankar said, "Lord Shri Krishna and Lord Hanuman were the greatest diplomats of the world. I am saying this very seriously."

According to him, they were best diplomats if they are looked in the perspective of diplomacy, what situation they were in, what mission was given to them, how they had handled the situation. "Hanumanji, he had gone ahead of the mission, he had contacted Goddess Sita, burnt Lanka...he was a multi-purpose diplomat," PTI quoted Jaishankar as saying.

S Jaishankar claimed that in today's discourse, he could give an equivalent for every concept from the Hindu epic Mahabharat for the world's 10 big strategic concepts pertaining to international relations.

"If you say today it is a multi-polar world, at that time what was happening in Kurukshetra (the site of the battle of Mahabharat), that was multi-polar Bharat, where there were different rajya (kingdoms), they were told 'you are with them, you are with me'...a couple of them were non-aligned...like Balram and Rukma," he added. He said now people say it is a globalised world, there is interdependence, there is constraint.

"What was Arjuna's dilemma, it was constraint, that he was emotionally interdependent...that how do I fight against my relatives. That was not material interdependence, but it was emotional interdependence," he said.

"We sometimes say Pakistan did this or that, and we will show strategic patience. The best example of strategic patience is the way Lord Krishna handled Shishupal. He (Lord Krishna) forgave him 100 times," he said.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has come down heavily on foreign newspapers for reserving adjectives like "Hindu nationalist" for the Indian government.

"If you read foreign newspapers, they use words like Hindu nationalist government. In America or Europe, they won't say Christian nationalist... these adjectives are reserved for us. They don't understand that this country is ready to do more with the world and not less with the world," Jaishankar was quoted saying by ANI.

EAM Slams Western Media

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has come down heavily on foreign newspapers for reserving adjectives like "Hindu nationalist" for the Indian government.

"If you read foreign newspapers, they use words like Hindu nationalist government. In America or Europe, they won't say Christian nationalist... these adjectives are reserved for us. They don't understand that this country is ready to do more with the world and not less with the world," Jaishankar was quoted saying by ANI.

Jaishankar said he is proud of it and doesn't think there is anything to be apologetic about.

"If you look at the last 9 years, there is no doubt that government and politics of the day are more nationalistic...I don't think there is anything to be apologetic about it. The same nationalist people have helped countries abroad and moved forward in disaster situations in other countries," he said.