Former Congress President and present MP from Wayanad Rahul Gandhi, appearing at ‘Ideas for India’ conference in London on Saturday, criticized the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) by referring it to be “arrogant” and “stifled”.
He alleged, “… bureaucrats from Europe tell me that the IFS has completely changed and won’t listen to anything – they are arrogant. Now they just tell us what orders they are getting, there is no conversation.”
In response to this, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar slammed Rahul Gandhi on Twitter, calling the change to be a “sign of confidence” and for “defending national interests”.
The foreign affairs minister took to the micro-blogging site and said, ” Yes, the Indian Foreign Service has changed. Yes, they follow the orders of the Government. Yes, they counter the arguments of others. No, its not called Arrogance. It is called Confidence. And it is called defending National Interest.”
However, soon the union minister was countered by the spokesperson of Congress Randeep Surjewala. He too took to Twitter and said that (the change) is called being unable to stand in front of China and fostering the party agenda rather than that of the nation.
Yes, it is also called being subservient to the political masters in face of foreign policy bloopers. Yes, it is called not being able to stand up to China in face of illegal occupation of our territory. Yes, it is called furthering the agenda of a party rather than the Nation,” Surjewala tweeted.
While speaking at the conference, Rahul Gandhi had alleged the BJP government of attacking and capturing the constitutional institution to work in their favor. He said, “We (Congress) are not just fighting the BJP. We are now fighting the institutional structure of the Indian state, which has been captured by an organization.”
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Rahul Gandhi further said that “the Congress is fighting to regain India. It’s an ideological battle now – a national ideological battle. A soul without a voice means nothing. India’s voice has been crushed. The deep state is chewing the Indian state, much like what happened in Pakistan.”
