The External Affairs Minister minister said, "Nationalism in India is the nationalism of confidence, year on year they feel that their prospects have improved, they feel their cultures need to get a fairer hearing than they did in the past”
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday opened up about his views on nationalism in India and in different countries.
While speaking at inaugural of the opening plenary of Changing World, Changing India, Jaishankar began by explaining three parameters of change in the world – namely the stress of globalization, rise of nationalism, global rebalancing. Later he described each parameter with respect to India.
On nationalism, he said, “In the world, broadly there is a growth of nationalism, that nationalism has been validated electorally in many places. At one level, each is different, but somewhere there is some message there. Nationalism in India is the nationalism of confidence, year on year they feel that their prospects have improved, they feel their cultures need to get a fairer hearing than they did in the past”.
He also said, “Nationalism in other places that demonstrates insecurity. There is stagnation, the quality of their life have not improved. As for India, the short answer would be glancing at the election result. Five years of the government has kept alive and perhaps even strengthened the expectation of change in this country”.
Son of prominent international strategic affairs analyst K Subrahmanyam, Jaishankar's diplomatic career stretched across more than three decades. A Padma Shri awardee, the 64-year-old former diplomat has served as foreign secretary in January 2015, after PM Modi sacked the foreign secretary Sujatha Singh.
He has also been the country's longest-serving foreign secretary in four decades and helped craft much of PM Modi's foreign policy. He played a key role in finalising the nuclear deal between India and US.
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