Jaishankar slams US media for ’biased’ India coverage. Here’s what he said

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday took a dig at the mainstream US media including The Washington Post, for their 'biased' coverage of India. He was addressing a gathering of Indian-Americans from across the country amidst laughter and applause.

"There are some newspapers, you know, exactly, what they are going to write including one on this own," said Jaishankar as quoted by news agency PTI.

Responding to a question on the increase in anti-Indian forces in this country, he said, "There are biases, efforts really to determine...Look, the more India goes its way and the people who believe that they were the custodians and the shapers of India lose ground in India the more actually, some of these debaters gonna come outside."

He asserted that such groups are 'not winning in India', rather 'will try and win outside or try and shape India from outside'.

"This is something which we need to be aware of. It is important to contest. It isn't because most Americans will not know what sort of the nuances and the complexities of back home, so, it's important not to sit back, not to let other people define me. That is something which I feel as a community is very important for us," he added.

The minister was further asked about the misrepresentation of the Kashmir issue in the United States. "If there is a terrorist incident, if does not matter what faith the person who's killed belongs to," he replied.

"How often do you hear people talking about it; pronouncing it, in fact, look at the media coverage. What does the media cover what does the media not cover?," the External Affairs Minister asked.

He underlined that this is how opinions and perceptions are shaped.

The minister further cited an example of Article 370 issue and said, "What was a temporary provision of the Constitution was finally put to rest this was supposed to be an act of majority. This was supposed to be majoritarian. Tell me what was happening in Kashmir was not majoritarian? I think the way facts are slanted, things are laid out. What is right, and what is wrong is confusing. This is actually politics at work."

"I honestly believe that if you look at the whole 370 the Jammu and Kashmir situation, to me it's mind boggling. Something whose merits were so obvious, should actually there even be people who would think different way,” Jaishankar added. 

(With PTI inputs)