External affairs minister S Jaishankar rejected US President Joe Biden's 'xenophobic' remarks against India and said that we are a very open and welcoming nation.
"I would say actually, in the history of the world, that it's been a society which has been very open ... different people from different societies come to India," he told The Economic Times on May 3.
Biden, on May 2, clubbed India with Japan, China, and Russia, and used the term 'xenophobic' to describe these countries.
"Think about it. Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble. Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they're xenophobic. They don't want immigrants," the US President said while campaigning for his re-election at Washington fundraising event.
Jaishankar also refuted the allegation that the Indian economy was faltering. "First of all, Indian economy is not faltering. Two, India has been a very unique country," he said.
Elaborating on how India has always welcomed people with open arms, the external affairs minister said, "That’s why we have the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), which is to open up doors for people who are in trouble ... I think we should be open to people who have the need to come to India".
While rejecting the criticism on CAA, Jaishankar said, "There are people who publicly said on record that because of CAA, a million Muslims will lose their citizenship in this country.. Why are they not being held to account? Because nobody has lost citizenship".
The EAM also addressed the issue of targeted killings in Pakistan. "Terrorists are there in large numbers. Statistically, where they will be in large numbers, things will happen to them. Now they have created an industry which is the terrorist's industry ... things could happen there," Jaishankar added.
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