Sushma Gets Carried Away While Praising Modi, Ends Up Embarrassing India Internationally.
Indian Foreign Minister has to beat a hasty retreat. Forced to apologise for calling Nepalese in Janakpur Indians.
Blind worship can be dangerous for the country’s health. Earlier today, Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj got carried away in her praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and claimed that residents of Janakpur, Nepal were Indians.
The incident caused a diplomatic scandal with a Nepal Member Of Parliament calling Swaraj’s remarks “unacceptable” and ‘undermining Nepal’s sovereignty’.
Regrettable that India’s External Affairs Minister @SushmaSwaraj described Janakpur’s population that @narendramodi greeted as Indians.
One wonders what the confusion was,or if this was casual undermining of Nepal’s sovereignty.
Either way, @IndiaInNepal,it is unacceptable.
— Gagan Thapa (@thapagk) May 28, 2018
Minister Swaraj had to backtrack promptly and issue an apology.
This was a mistake on my part. I sincerely apologise for this. pic.twitter.com/S1CpLv8uu0
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) May 28, 2018
But the damage had been done.
In an already fraught neighbourhood, India has been keen to especially mend ties with Nepal – PM Modi visited again on May 12, (with elaborate temple visits) after hosting PM Oli in New Delhi just weeks earlier.
Many Nepalese citizens took to Twitter to register their protest.
Sushma Swaraj later tweeted an apology but it may have already been too late.
Nepal is still smarting under the unofficial economic ‘blockade’ that Nepalese believe India enforced, which brought unimaginable hardship to landlocked Nepal. India has had to do a lot to bring ties with the Himalayan neighbouring state back to an even keel and dispel the idea that India pushed to isolate Nepal.
This terming of Nepalese as Indians could be the setback India can hardly afford at present. India has been worried, with growing Chinese influence on India’s closest neighbour. Its fears were heightened especially after the present government in Nepal came to power on a distinct anti-India platform.
The incumbent BJP puts a lot in seeking to draw parallels with ‘Hindu’ Nepal but calling Nepalese Indians and incurring their wrath only means India moves several steps back in its effort to mollify this neighbour.
Unlike countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, Nepal has never been a part of undivided India.