Teach PM Some Diplomacy: Gandhi Rejects Jaishankar’s Clarification On Modi’s ‘Trump Sarkar’ Remark

Gandhi said that PM Modi’s “fawning endorsement” caused serious problems with the Democrats for India.

Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi / (Photo by SAJJAD HUSSAIN / AFP)

New Delhi: Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi, on Tuesday, trained guns at External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, hours after the latter clarified Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Abki Baar Trump Sarkar’ remark, made during the Howdy Modi event in Houston. Gandhi said that PM Modi’s “fawning endorsement” caused serious problems with the Democrats for India. He also asked the EAM to teach Prime Minister Modi a little bit about diplomacy. “Thank you Mr Jaishankar for covering up our PM’s incompetence. His fawning endorsement caused serious problems with the Democrats for India. I hope it gets ironed out with your intervention.  While you’re at it, do teach him a little bit about diplomacy,” Rahul Gandhi tweeted. Foreign Minister S Jaishankar issued a clarification on the remark on Monday stating it was misinterpreted. Jaishankar, who is currently on a three-day trip to Washington DC, strongly refuted the notion that the prime minister used the phrase to endorse Trump's candidature for his 2020 re-election campaign. Asserting India's non-partisan stand to domestic American politics, Jaishankar said PM Modi used the term ‘Abki Baar Trump Sarkaar’, in the Houston rally, merely referring to what US President Donald Trump had said to endear himself to the Indian American community during his presidential campaign. No, he did not say that, the minister said when asked during a news conference with Indian journalists about the implication of the prime minister purportedly using the slogan in his Houston address. “I think, please, look very carefully at what the prime minister said. My recollection of what the prime minister said was that candidate Trump had used this ( Ab Ki Baar Trump Sarkaar ). So PM is talking about the past,” he said. "I don't think we should, honestly, misinterpret what was said. I don't think you're doing a good service to anybody,” he had said.