00:00 our effort was today to say look the country has progressed, our foreign policy is delivering
00:06 for the people of India, for the national good of India. We thought at least on this
00:11 issue that the opposition would put its political differences aside, would listen to it with
00:17 an open mind, would put national interest first. If you claim to be India and you are
00:23 not prepared to listen to Indian national interest, what kind of India are you? It is
00:27 something to have politics, I have no problem with that, I am also in politics. But I think
00:31 at times on certain issues people should put politics aside. I think it is a very sorry
00:36 state of affairs and it is really very very unfortunate. I gave a suo moto statement today
00:43 in the Rajya Sabha because we felt that in the last few months there had been enormous
00:52 achievements in foreign policy and some of the achievements if I were to spell out for
00:58 example for 40 years we have been trying to get a GE aircraft engine from the United States.
01:06 Thanks to the Prime Minister's visit we succeeded in doing so. You all know today how important
01:11 semiconductors are. We are putting really big energy, big effort into a semiconductor
01:17 mission because that is what will make India strong for the future. Now three very important
01:23 American companies made commitments to invest in centres in India during Prime Minister's
01:31 visit and we saw Google for example decided that its global FinTech centre would be in
01:36 India. Now I can give you many other examples in different countries. But our effort was
01:45 today to say look the country has progressed, our foreign policy is delivering for the people
01:51 of India, for the national good of India. So we thought at least on this issue that
01:58 the opposition would put its political differences aside, would listen to it with an open mind,
02:03 would put national interest first. If you claim to be India and you are not prepared
02:09 to listen to Indian national interest, what kind of India are you? I mean you are an India
02:16 which is prepared to sacrifice national interest. That is not India to me. So I feel it is very
02:23 unfortunate today that foreign policy which has long been an issue where different political
02:31 parties have come together, they may disagree on other things. It is one area where by and
02:36 large there has been national consensus, national unity. But there should be appreciation. If
02:42 Prime Minister today is honoured across the world and I spelt the term that he got the
02:48 highest ever award that France gives, he is the first Indian Prime Minister to get it
02:54 or Papua New Guinea or Fiji. So if he had the honour of addressing the Congress, he
03:02 is the only Prime Minister of India who has addressed Congress twice. So it is one thing
03:08 to have politics. I have no problem with that. I am also in politics. But I think at times
03:13 on certain issues people should put politics aside, should think about the country, should
03:19 be prepared to listen to where we have made progress because this is good for the country.
03:24 It is not just an achievement of a government, it is an achievement of a country. When our
03:29 Prime Minister or our President, I mean I mentioned President was given the highest
03:35 award in Suriname. If you cannot respect the President, you cannot respect the Vice President,
03:41 you cannot respect the Prime Minister, you will not allow a foreign minister to make
03:45 his statement to inform the house, then I think it is a very sorry state of affairs
03:50 and it is really very very unfortunate how strongly and how wrongly partisan politics
03:56 is pursued.
04:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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