External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has slammed billionaire investor George Soros for his recent remarks about India's democracy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking at an event in Australia, Jaishankar called Soros "old, rich, opinionated, and dangerous," and accused him of trying to shape global narratives by investing resources in organizations that promote his views.
Soros had recently claimed that the Adani crisis would weaken the Modi government and lead to a democratic revival in the country. He also alleged that Modi was not a democrat and incited violence against Muslims, and criticized India for buying cheap Russian crude oil.
Jaishankar pushed back against Soros's comments, calling them ridiculous and pointing out that his previous suggestion that India planned to strip millions of Muslims of their citizenship did not come to fruition.
“Few years ago, he actually accused us of planning to strip millions of Muslims of their citizenship, which of course didn't happen. It was a ridiculous suggestion. But you have to understand what this actually mean. I would take a view that Mr Soros is an old, rich, opinionated person sitting in New York who still thinks that his views should determine how the entire world works,” Jaishankar said.
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“Now if I would only stop at old, rich and opinionated, I would put it away. But he is old, rich, opinionated and dangerous. Because what happens is when such people and such views and such organisations, they actually invest resources in shaping narratives,” he added.
Jaishankar also accused Soros of thinking that his views should determine how the entire world works, and criticized his approach to elections, noting that Soros and those who share his views only consider an election to be legitimate if the candidate they support wins.
"People like him think an election is good if the person they want to see, wins and if the election throws up a different outcome then they will say it is a flawed democracy and the beauty is that all this is done under the pretence of advocacy of open society," he said.
Earlier, George Soros had said that he expected a "democratic revival in India" after the Hidenberg Research's report on Adani Group.
“Modi is silent on the subject, but he will have to answer questions from foreign investors and in parliament,” Soros was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
“This will significantly weaken Modi’s stranglehold on India’s federal government and open the door to push for much-needed institutional reforms. I may be naive, but I expect a democratic revival in India,” he added in a speech ahead of the Munich Security Conference.
