'Our lowest turnout higher than your highest': Jaishankar slams Western media's remarks on Indian elections

‘Our lowest turnout higher than your highest’: Jaishankar slams Western media’s remarks on Indian elections

External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday hit back at western media’s remarks on Indian democracy, saying that their criticsm stems from a misplaced sentiment that they are political players in our elections.

“I get a lot of these noises from the Western press and if they criticize our democracy, it’s not because they lack information. It is because they think they are also political players in our election.”

The minister pointed out an article in the Western media, which questioned India’s decision to conduct elections during a heatwave.

“Now I read that article and I wanted to say listen, in that heat my lowest turnout is higher than your highest turnout in the best run,” Jaishankar quipped.

Jaishankar said that such remarks come from a place of intrusion and are purely political.

“These are politics. These are our domestic politics which is going global, global politics which feels they must now intrude in India. How can these chaps decide who should be ruling them without consulting us?” he said.

“They (West) actually think they are part of our electorate? … I think it’s time today that we disabuse them and the best way that we do that, is by confidence,” the minister said.

Jaishankar also called out the western critics’ tendency to question everything about India’s electoral system, including EVMs and the Election Commission itself.

“They will question your election system, your EVM, your election commission, even the weather … And one complaint is … BJP is so unfair, BJP thinks it’s going to win very big,” he said, adding that, in a kind of way, today, we are at a very important inflexion point.

Jaishankar said that the decisions, the government will be making, are not just for the next five years, and will give our nation, our society, and our coming generations a very big vote of confidence.

(With inputs from ANI)