Jaishankar’s Kaurava Reference on Pak, ‘Hanuman and Krishna Top diplomats’

Diplomat turned India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar claimed Lord Krishna and Hanuman as the ‘biggest diplomats’ of their time while stating his rich understanding on strategies.

Mr Jaishankar unveiled the Marathi translation of his book – The Indian Way – and went on to draw comparison between current global strategic concepts and Mahabharat.

“Kurukeshtra – the battlefield of Mahabharat was perfect example of multipolar Bharat. Arjuna was emotionally interdependent,” India’s foreign Minister. Meanwhile, Mr. Jaishankar didn’t shy away from taking a sly dig at Pakistan by mentioning Lord Krishan’s forgiving nature towards Shishupal.

“If we talk about strategic patience, Lord Krishna was best example of that. He tackled Shishupal by forgiving him 100 times and then you know what happened,” Mr. Jaishankar added.

He also stressed on the importance of reputation by mentioning how Pandavs had a better reputation in comparison with Kauravs.

“Reputation is extremely important in such cases. For larger good, sometimes tactical adjustments have to be made, and strategic deception have to be done. We use very heavy terms like trojan horse, Achilles heel. I don’t have a problem with usage of terms but if we really have to understand the Indian strategic culture, we have to go back to our own tales,” he added.

While responding to another question, Mr Jaishankar claimed that like Pandavs could not choose their relatives, India can’t choose its neighbours (taking another dig at Pakistan).