Responding sharply to a question whether “India was being a bully in the region” (sub-continent and the Indian Ocean region), at a book launch event in the national capital, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said ‘big bullies’ don’t provide USD 4.5 billion in aid when neighbours are in distress.

“The big change today in this part of the world is what has happened between India and its neighbours. When you say India is perceived as a big bully, you know, big bullies don’t provide four and a half billion dollars when the neighbours are in trouble. Big bullies don’t supply vaccines to other countries when COVID is on or make exceptions to their own rules to respond to food demands or fuel demands or fertilizer demands because some war in some other part of the world has complicated their lives,” said Mr Jaishankar at the event on Sunday.

A video clip of Mr Jaishankar’s response to the ‘barb’ was widely shared across social media platforms.

“You also have to look today at actually what is changed between India and its neighbours. Certainly, with Bangladesh and Nepal, I mean today you have a power grid, you have roads which didn’t exist a decade ago, you have railways which didn’t exist a decade ago, there’s usage of waterways. Indian businesses use ports of Bangladesh on a national treatment basis,” Mr Jaishankar added.

Underscoring the work undertaken to enhance and improve connectivity between India and its neighbouring countries, Mr Jaishankar said trade, investments and travel with Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Maldives have seen a sharp uptick.

“Today at the connectivity, just the volume of people moving up and down, the volume of the trade which is there, the investments which are there, it’s actually a very, very good story to tell. Not just with Nepal and Bangladesh, with Sri Lanka as well, I would say even with Maldives,” Mr Jaishankar stated at the book launch event on Saturday.

“And Bhutan…I mean I don’t want to miss them out because they have just been consistently strong partners. So our problem in the neighbourhood, very honestly, is in respect to one country. And in diplomacy, you always hold out hopes that, yes, okay, keep at it, and who knows one day what the future holds,” he added.

Stressing it was essential for an ‘average person’ to actively engage with foreign policy matters, Mr Jaishankar said, “Certainly, all Indians need to take more interest in foreign policy. it is very common all over the world, there is a belief that foreign policy is something complicated, esoteric, that should be left to certain people to deal with…which is not entirely without some justification.”

“…But, to me, a number of events happened that showed why it’s important for the average person to get involved, pay more attention to foreign policy…and some of those events, if you look, were the Covid,” he added.

Invoking India’s outreach towards friendly neighbours and global partners during the Covid-19 pandemic, he said the unprecedented events at the time showcased how the world decided to not “leave you alone”.

“Covid showed that if you were a person in some remote part of India, with absolutely no interest in the world. The world had decided to not leave you alone, the world actually entered your doorstep, so the idea that there is a world, and there is a home…it is necessary for us to put that behind us,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Nikki Haley won the Republican presidential primary in Washington DC on Sunday, scoring her first victory as she struggles to remain relevant in her underdog race against Donald Trump.

Haley’s symbolic victory in the nation’s capital comes just ahead a decisive day in the long US nominating process — Super Tuesday, in which 15 states and one territory vote.

Washington is a solidly Democratic town with a small number of registered Republicans. CNN, which was among outlets reporting that Haley won on Sunday, put it at just 22,000.

Haley took 63 percent of the votes in a primary held in just one place — a downtown hotel, according to Politico, which quoted Washington party officials.

In the 2020 election against Trump, then candidate Joe Biden won 92 percent of the votes in Washington.

The city has never produced a majority vote for a Republican presidential candidate.

The Haley campaign put out a statement saying “It’s not surprising that Republicans closest to Washington dysfunction are rejecting Donald Trump and all his chaos.”

Trump’s campaign in turn released what it called a “statement on Nikki Haley Being Crowned Queen of The Swamp.”

“Tonight’s results in Washington DC reaffirm the object of President Trump’s campaign — he will drain the swamp and put America first,” the statement said.

The Super Tuesday milestone is expected to leave Trump a hair’s breadth from securing the Republican Party’s presidential nomination. He has already swept all the early state primaries. 

Super Tuesday is seen as the last real chance for Haley to upend the former president’s march towards becoming the party’s flagbearer once again, against Biden.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The AAP on Sunday attacked the BJP for fielding Bansuri Swaraj from the New Delhi constituency in the Lok Sabha elections, claiming she had represented “anti-national forces” in court, even as she hit back at Delhi’s ruling party over its choice of candidate from the seat.

Delhi Minister Atishi said at a press conference that Ms Swaraj — the daughter of late BJP leader and former Union minister Sushma Swaraj — should apologise to the people of the country for taking up such cases and also demanded that the party replace her.

“Today, she will go to women in the New Delhi constituency and ask them for votes,” Atishi said. She also demanded that the BJP replace Ms Swaraj as its candidate from the constituency.

Hitting back, Ms Swaraj questioned the AAP on its choice of candidate, who was allegedly beaten up by his own cadre in Rajendra Nagar on Saturday.

Responding to the AAP’s allegations, she said, “I would like to ask the AAP — why have you fielded a candidate who was beaten up by his own cadre in Rajendra Nagar yesterday (Saturday)?” “They have named a candidate who is not liked by his own party members. They can put allegations against us but people will give them a reply in the elections,” she said.

Somnath Bharti, the INDIA bloc candidate from the New Delhi constituency, also demanded that Swaraj and the BJP should “apologise for such a blunder”.

During the press conference, Atishi also spoke about outgoing BJP MP Harsh Vardhan’s decision to bow out of electoral politics.

Mr Vardhan is known for his honesty and hard work for the country, the people of his parliamentary constituency and his assembly constituency, she said.

“He always raised issues of public interest and spoke for them. I think it has become very clear that just as he was removed from the position of health minister at one time for raising some issues, today, it seems that perhaps his ticket has been cut due to his honesty,” she claimed.

Barring North East Delhi, where the BJP has named Manoj Tiwari for a third term, it has fielded new faces from four constituencies — New Delhi (Swaraj), West Delhi (Kamaljeet Sehrawat), South Delhi (Ramvir Singh Bidhuri) and Chandni Chowk (Praveen Khandelwal).

The BJP is yet to name its candidates for East Delhi — where MP Gautam Gambhir has said he requested party chief JP Nadda to relieve him of his political duties — and North West Delhi.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)