India’s foreign minister lashes out at critics after BBC raids, singles out George Soros
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Guards standing outside the office building where Indian tax authorities raided the office of BBC, in New Delhi on Feb 15, 2023.
PHOTO: AFP
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SYDNEY – India’s foreign minister on Saturday hit out at “scaremongering” critics who claim the country’s democracy is being corroded, singling out billionaire George Soros – a popular target for right-wing ire.
At an event in Sydney, Mr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar rejected accusations that multiple raids on the BBC’s India offices
In defending Mr Modi, Mr Jaishankar painted detractors as scaremongers with an antiquated “Euro-Atlantic view” of democracy who fail to respect the Indian people’s democratic choice. “There are still people in the world who believe their definition, their preferences, their views must override everything else.”
The Indian tax authorities raided the BBC’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai just weeks after the broadcaster aired a documentary on Mr Modi’s actions
Mr Jaishankar singled out Mr Soros, who recently highlighted Mr Modi’s close ties with fraud-accused businesses run by his ally Gautam Adani and suggested that while India was a democracy, Mr Modi “is no democrat”.
Mr Jaishankar denounced the 92-year-old Hungarian-born financier and philanthropist as “old, rich, opinionated and dangerous” and someone who “still thinks that his views should determine how the entire world works”.
“He actually thinks that it doesn’t matter that this is a country of 1.4 billion people – we are almost that – whose voters decide how the country should run.”
Mr Soros has long funded projects promoting transparency and democracy, making him the subject of countless conspiracy theories and politically motivated attacks.
“People like him think an election is good if the person we want to see wins. If the election throws up a different outcome, then we will say it’s a flawed democracy,” Mr Jaishankar said. AFP
