NEW DELHI: Amid stepped up pressure for support to UN resolution against Sri Lanka on alleged human rights violations, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today said India will not interfere in the internal matters of that country.
“We do not meddle in other people’s affairs. We do not willingly step in and become honest brokers. We do believe in a safe sound advice available to people who might not be talking to each other at the right time,” he said, speaking at the International Chamber of Commerce Asia Pacific CEO Forum meeting here.
“We do value this ability to talk to two separate sets of opinions at the same time without being hypocritical, without taking sides and without letting down either side,” he said.
Some political parties, including DMK and AIADMK, have been demanding India’s support to the resolution against Sri Lanka at an upcoming meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
“India has evolved, and India wishes to evolve continuously, in a nature in which India can speak to two estranged countries at the same time and speak with confidence that we are trusted on both sides,” Khurshid said on the issue without elaborating.
He said India was often “accused of being soft, luke warm and accommodating”.
“If you know that your national aspirations coincide with the global view of prosperity, there is no reason why you should be speaking in a harsh voice. We have never supported the idea of policing the world,” he said.
On relationship with China, Khurshid said India will not shy away from any competition and was willing to learn from its neighbor and engage in a healthy competition. Khurshid said, “Not only we are not shy of competition from China, we are confident we have certain strengths in our approach to the world, both in terms of the market place and in terms of our relationships that cannot be replicated by China.
“We do also understand that China has tremendous strength that we must respect and we must factor it into our policy and economic planning.”
Lauding Finance Minister P Chidambaram for coming up with a “responsible” and “balanced” budget, Khurshid said nobody had a major reason to complaint against it.
“You do not like the budget because we are not giving tax cuts, we are not taxing any particular community, not giving freebies, we have not cut social benefits anymore,” Khurshid said, adding that every time the government can not have a “populous budget”.
“You could not have got a more balanced budget, because it is a budget that consolidates what we started doing more than five years ago. You can’t be giving something out every year. This is the time of consolidation,” he said.
Exuding confidence of coming back to power in the general elections next year, he said there was no possibility of an early poll. “Why should there be an election in a hurry. We have been elected for five years and at the end of five years we will go back to be elected again.” -PTI
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