New Delhi: India’s ambassador to Ireland Akhilesh Mishra, whose rejoinder to an Irish newspaper led to the Congress calling for his dismissal, has told ThePrint that his letter was a part of “public diplomacy” of the embassy.
In the letter, posted on X by the Indian embassy in Ireland earlier this week, Mishra said Prime Minister Narendra Modi enjoyed “unprecedented” popularity as he fought the “deeply entrenched ecosystem of corruption (created by the 55-year rule, including the first 30 years, by a single dynastic party in India)”.
Mishra said The Irish Times had been reporting “in an extremely partisan, prejudiced and exclusively negative manner on India”.
“As part of the normal public diplomacy of embassies, we have been taking up the matter with them,” he added.
Ambassador @AkhileshIFS’s rejoinder to @IrishTimes' highly biased & prejudiced editorial [Modi tightens his grip” April 11, 2024)], casting aspersion on Prime Minister of India, Shri @narendramodi, Indian democracy, law enforcement institutions & “Hindu-majority” people of India. pic.twitter.com/Oh5rFly92Z
— India in Ireland (Embassy of India, Dublin) (@IndiainIreland) April 15, 2024
Next day, the Congress said Mishra’s rejoinder to the newspaper editorial was an attack on the Indian Opposition and unbecoming of an envoy.
The party immediately sought his dismissal, with general secretary in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh posting on X that the attack on the Opposition in the manner of “a party apparatchik” was not expected from an envoy.
In a separate post, Ramesh said since the Indian envoy was a career diplomat, this made his comments “even more shameful, disgraceful and completely unacceptable. He has actually breached service rules and should be sacked right away”.
Defending the Government of India is one thing and is to be expected. But to attack Opposition parties openly in thus manner like a party apparatchik is not expected from an Ambassador even if he be a political appointment. This is unprofessional and disgraceful behaviour on his… https://t.co/t0YQSKZSLQ
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) April 16, 2024
Mishra, however, said this was not the first rejoinder sent to the Dublin-based newspaper. On 21 August 2023, a letter to the editor from the ambassador was also published by the paper on its website, in response to an editorial on Independence Day last year. The editorial in the The Irish Times said Modi and the BJP had stoked ethnic and minority tensions in India, with specific reference to the violence in Manipur.
Mishra has served at different Indian missions including Malé, Kabul, Toronto, Kathmandu, Rome, Dar-es-Salaam, Lima and San Francisco. He told ThePrint that in his thirty-five year career, he has always “tried to respond every time” to news reports that were “anti-India”.
“In Ireland, there are two main papers. The other one has not carried any anti-India editorial during my tenure… In the past 35 years, I have always tried to respond every time there is anti-India original reporting. Sometimes it gets published, many times it does not,” he said.
Mishra said there was no “partisan” political angle to the letter. He added “the letter intended to provide, to the local readers of The Irish Times, a factual explanation of PM Modi’s unprecedented popularity in India and abroad”.
The Indian envoy further said that the practice of sending rejoinders to editorials was not uncommon, and often done by foreign ambassadors based in New Delhi to Indian newspapers.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Shameless guy this akhilesh mishra, just like kedi