'The Best Diplomat Is Hanuman': EAM Jaishankar Interacts With Indian Community In Thailand, Praises PM Modi

EAM S Jaishankar heaped praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for handling the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, during an interaction with the Indian community in Thailand, said that for him, the best diplomat of all times is Lord Hanuman.  He also heaped praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for handling the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. “I feel it's been an enormous good fortune for the country to have someone like PM Modi at this time. And I am not saying this because he is the prime minister of the day and I am a member of his Cabinet,” he said. 

“I am saying this because when you have a once-in-a-century health challenge, it's only someone who's so grounded can say okay there is a health challenge, but what will do for the persons going home; what will you do to feed them; how will you put money into their account. The idea that women will manage the money better will not occur to many people,” Jaishankar said. 

"Good leaders are people very grounded, very experienced with an enormous feel for what is happening but who also has the passion to take the country to a different level -- enormously grounded and enormously visionary. And such people, I can tell you, come once in a lifetime," he added. 

During the interaction, the Union minister said that for him, the best diplomat of all the times was Lord Hanuman who dealt with “unknown entity”, located Sita, helped boost her morale and successfully came back. 

“Who would you name as the best diplomat? For me the best diplomat…no question is Hanuman. Some people thought I was not serious about the answer, but if you actually look at the role of Hanuman that you are setting out on behalf of, in this case Lord Ram, but let us take that as a country, into the unknown dealing with another entity where you don’t have that much information (about),” Jaishankar said. 

“Your own well being is not secured so you have to go there (to) get information, find intelligence. He goes, locates Sita, he actually manages to make contact with her surreptitiously, he is able to keep her morale up, he is able to sow confusion in Ravan's court, he is able to set the place on fire - which is not my prescription for diplomats - but if you look at the totality of everything you do, and then he is able to come back,” he added.