"Life Is Not Khata-Khat ...": S Jaishankar's Swipe At Rahul Gandhi

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar while addressing the Indian diaspora in Geneva said that life is not "khata-khat" (an easy job), it requires hard work. The use of the phrase was also a jibe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who had claimed that the Congress would solve issues 'Khata Khat" if voted to power.

Talking about human resources needed to build infrastructure, he said that people who have worked understand the importance of hard work and diligence.

"Until we develop the human resources, it requires hard work, until you build the infrastructure, until you have those policies. So life is not 'khata-khat'. Life is hard work. Life is diligence. Anybody who's held a job and laboured at it, knows it. So that's my message to you, that we have to work hard at it," he said.

Mr Jaishankar said that a country cannot be a major power in the world without manufacturing.

"And there are...people who say that we are incapable of it, we should not even attempt it. So, now ask yourself, can you actually be a major power in the world without manufacturing? Because a major power needs technology. Nobody can develop technology without developing manufacturing," he said.

Mr Jaishankar said that in terms of human resources, India has achieved a lot and the intent today is to ramp it up even more.

"In terms of human resources... it's again important to look here at achievements. So I can tell you the intent today is actually to speed it up, to ramp it up, to increase it, to keep telling ourselves that what we have done is just a beginning. I mean there is no intention of resting on whatever levels there may be," he said.

Mr Jaishankar said that apart from the professional conversation, world leaders are interested in what is happening in India.

"When I travel around the world- and you would have noticed I do a fair deal of that [chuckles]- most of my counterparts, most of the presidents and prime ministers are meet. Yes, we do the foreign policy, but that's the professional part of it. But they are enormously interested, actually, in what is happening in India," he said.

"Sometimes the conversation, even the words, are very similar. I had the leader of a very major Arab country actually say, we have food distribution system and, Minister, you don't know how much leakage we have. Because he was very interested, how do we today manage the food support, where today they are covering 830 million people. How do we manage that with actually much less leakage than there has ever been in the past? People who ask today, how have you improved your income tax collection? Because every president and prime minister is interested in increasing their revenues," Jaishankar added, talking about food support in India.

Mr Jaishankar said that in what India is doing, there are lessons for the rest of the world.

"When I look back at these ten years, yes, there have been changes for the good in our country, but I will also say to all of you that those changes actually globally resonate. That other countries today look with deep interest, they may not be able to exactly copy it, but somewhere in what we are doing there are lessons for the rest of the world. And people feel this country, which, bear in mind, which still has USD 3000 per capita income below that, is able to do that much," he said.

Mr Jaishankar added that achievements are meant to motivate and not be satiated.

"Achievements not to satiate but to motivate. Not to say I've done well, so I'm done. But to say I've done well and I could have done so much more. And if I could have done this in two terms, how much more can I do in a third?" he said.

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