External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has condemned the “disrespectful colloquialism” used for his predecessor late Sushma Swaraj by former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
In his latest book ‘Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love’, Pompeo said that he never saw his counterpart Swaraj as an “important political player” in the Indian foreign policy system but got along famously with Jaishankar.
The former top American diplomat used the American slang words “goofball” and “heartland political hack” as he described Swaraj in a critical manner in his book.
Sushma Swaraj served as External Affairs Minister in the first Modi government from May 2014 to May 2019. She passed away in August 2019.
“On the Indian side, my original counterpart was not an important player on the Indian foreign policy team. Instead, I worked much more closely with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, a close and trusted confidant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Pompeo writes in his book.
Deploring Pompeo’s comments on Swaraj, Jaishankar said that he had an “exceptionally” relationship with her.
“I have seen a passage in Secretary Pompeo’s book referring to Smt Sushma Swaraj ji. I always held her in great esteem and had an exceptionally close and warm relationship with her. I deplore the disrespectful colloquialism used for her,” he told PTI.
Pompeo describes Jaishankar ‘fierce defender of his boss, country’
Pompeo heaped praises on Jaishankar, describing him as a “professional, rational, and a fierce defender of his boss and his country.”
The 59-year-old, who served as the Secretary of State from 2018 to 2021, further said that he hit it off with his “second counterpart” Jaishankar in their first meeting itself.
“My second Indian counterpart was Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. In May 2019, we welcomed “J” as India’s new foreign minister. I could not have asked for a better counterpart. I love this guy. English is one of the seven languages Jaishankar speaks, and his is somewhat better than mine,” he writes.
“He (Jaishankar) said that he could see why I had trouble with his predecessor (Sushma Swaraj), a goofball and a heartland political hack. ‘Careful, I’m a heartland political hack!’ I replied in jest. He laughed, noting that if that were true, it would make me the first heartland political hack who had ever been an editor on the Harvard Law Review. Well played, J,” Pompeo said in his book.
