- Mike Pompeo depicts Sushma Swaraj somewhat disparagingly in his new book.
- US Secretary of State used slang terms “goofball” and “heartland political hack” for her.
- “I deplore the disrespectful colloquialism used for her,” Mr Jaishankar told PTI.
S Jaishankar reacts to Mike Pompeo remark about Sushma SwarajFormer US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has stated that he never considered his counterpart Sushma Swaraj as an “important political player.”
Pompeo depicts Sushma Swaraj somewhat disparagingly in his new book, ‘Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love,’ which was released on Tuesday, using the American slang terms “goofball” and “heartland political hack” for her.
Sushma Swaraj served as external affairs minister in the first Modi government from May 2014 to May 2019. She died in August 2019.
“On the Indian side, my original counterpart was not an important player on the Indian foreign policy team. Instead, I worked much more closely with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, a close and trusted confidant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” 59-year-old Pompeo writes in his book.
Pompeo, a confidant of then-US President Donald Trump, served as CIA Director in Trump’s cabinet from 2017 to 2018, and then as Secretary of State from 2018 to 2021.
“My second Indian counterpart was Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. In May 2019, we welcomed “J” as India’s new foreign minister. I could not have asked for a better counterpart. I love this guy. English is one of the seven languages he speaks, and his is somewhat better than mine,” writes the former top American diplomat, who is now exploring the possibility of a 2024 presidential run.
“Professional, rational, and a fierce defender of his boss and his country,” is how Pompeo described Mr Jaishankar.
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