External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday took a dig at a Western organization of journalists downgrading India on the press freedom index and pointed out that India has the “most uncontrollable press”.

During the interactive session on the Foreign Policy of the Modi Government, Jaishankar said, "I was amazed at our number. I thought we had the most uncontrollable press, and somebody is getting something fundamentally wrong”.

He compared India’s rank with Afghanistan and said, “Afghanistan was freer than us. Can you imagine? Look, these are all I mean, I see the democracy index, freedom index, religious freedom index, and press freedom index.”

Jaishankar referred to the press index as "mind games" and claimed that they are techniques for manipulating people's perceptions, such as decreasing the ranking of a nation you dislike while others do not.

Jaishankar once again took a jibe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. “I would have offered to take classes on China from Rahul Gandhi, but I discovered he was taking classes on China from the Chinese ambassador,” he said.

Referring to Rahul’s meeting with the Chinese envoy during the Doklam crisis in 2017, he said, “When Panda huggers try to be China hawks... it doesn’t fly. He (Rahul) speaks admiringly about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI goes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. It violates our national integrity and sovereignty. He doesn’t have a word to say on it.”

Jaishankar also hit out at misleading narratives and misrepresentations, adding, "We had, for example...a bridge which the Chinese were building on Pangong Tso. Now, the reality was that the particular area first Chinese came in 1959, and then they occupied it in 1962. But that's not the way it was put across."

At the same time, Jaishankar tried to evoke the collective responsibility mantra. “I think on certain issues we have a collective responsibility to at least behave in a way that we do not weaken our (India’s) collective position abroad to do what we have seen in the last three years in China.”

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published the World Press Freedom Index on Wednesday, assessing the state of journalism in 180 countries. India slipped 11 places down in the World Press Freedom Index 2023 this year, ranking 160 out of 180 countries. While Afghanistan stood at 152. China drops to the second-lowest spot on the 2023 World Freedom Press Index, standing at 179th rank. Last year, India stood at 150th rank. In comparison to India, Pakistan ranked 150, seven places up while Nepal lost 19 places and was placed at number 95. 

Image source: ANI