Rahul Gandhi taking classes on China from Chinese ambassador: S Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has taken a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, saying that the former President of the grand old party was taking classes on China from the Chinese ambassador, ANI reported.

Speaking at an event in Mysuru, he said, "I would have offered to take classes on China from Rahul Gandhi but I discovered he was taking classes on China from the Chinese ambassador,"

It was his reference to Rahul Gandhi's meeting with the Chinese ambassador during the Doklam crisis. Gandhi had targeted the BJP government claiming that India had lost a new territory to China's salami slicing.

"I know everything in politics is political. I accept that. But I think on certain issues, we have a collective responsibility to at least behave in a way that we do not weaken our (India's) collective position abroad to do what we have seen in the last three years in China," the news agency quoted the External Affairs Minister as stating at the event.

The Union Minister stated that often very misleading narratives are put in. "We had, for example...a bridge which the Chinese were building on Pangong Tso. Now, the reality was that the particular area first Chinese came in 1959, and then they occupied it in 1962. But that's not the way it was put across. This happened in the case of some of the so-called model villages as well, that they were built on areas which we lost in 62 or before 62.

Now, I don't believe you will very rarely hear me say 1962, that shouldn't have happened, or you are wrong, or you are responsible. What has happened has happened. It's our collective, I would say failure or responsibility. I do not necessarily attribute political colouring to it. I would like to see is actually a serious China conversation. I'm prepared to accept that there are different viewpoints on that, but if you reduce it to kind of slanging match, what can I say after that?"

S Jaishankar had slammed Rahul Gandhi earlier for his remarks over the border issue with China.

"When Panda huggers try to be China hawks... it doesn't fly," the External Affairs Minister said at the India Today Conclave.

"He [Rahul Gandhi] speaks admiringly about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). He compares, very poetically, I must say, the BRI with the Yellow River in China gushing forward. The BRI goes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. It violates our national integrity and sovereignty. He doesn't have a word to say about it," Jaishankar added.

With inputs from ANI