CURRENT POLITICAL DRAMA SHOULD NOT RENDER THE COUNTRY’S BORDERS VULNERABLE: JAISHANKAR

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday that effective diplomacy is when Indian consumers pay less for gasoline and farmers are assured of fertiliser at the proper time.

In response to a question on India's agriculture business at IIM Calcutta, Jaishankar stated, “Diplomacy is a bread-and-butter issue. At the end of my day, say today, I have made sure that an Indian consumer is paying less for petrol at the petrol pump, an Indian farmer is assured of fertilizer at the right time, an Indian household is getting its food and cooking oil at the right price, to me these are really my benchmark of what is successful diplomacy.”

He further said, “In the last few months, especially after the Ukraine conflict started, but even prior to that we have been working very hard at diversifying our sources of fertilizers and trying to reach a long-term understanding with suppliers so that we stabilize it for our farmers, we had reasonable measures of success… I mean still work to be done. But it is something very important because I do see a period where I am absolutely convinced that this country will emerge as a serious agricultural exporter.”

The External Affairs Minister stated that the political imperatives of the day should not render the country's borders vulnerable or hurt the nation's bigger interests.

While interacting with students at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, the union minister stated that the temporary provision granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 has been in effect for more than 70 years owing to "politics of the day."