New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and Kerala MP Shashi Tharoor has urged Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar to "calm down a bit" over his recent outburst at the Western countries in the aftermath of the Rahul Gandhi disqualification as member of parliament. Jaishankar while speaking at an event in Karnataka capital Bengaluru on Sunday, said that the “West thinks it has a God-given right of commenting on internal matters of other countries”.
The outburst came in the backdrop of statements by Germany and the US over Rahul Gandhi's disqualification over his 2019 'Modi surname' remarks for which he was recently convicted by a court in Surat. However Congress MP Tharoor asked the EAM to “not be so thin skinned” by reacting to every comment. “By reacting to every comment, we are doing ourselves a disservice. I urge my friend Jai to calm down a bit,” Tharoor said while coming out of the Parliament on Monday.
Tharoor said that the foreign minister was his friend whom he had known for a long time. “He is also my friend. But on this matter I think we as a country should not be so narrow minded. As a government, our every step has become important,” he said. As for the Rahul Gandhi disqualification row, the Surat Sessions Court on Monday extended Gandhi's bail in the case, while posting the matter for hearing next on Apr. 13.
The court's extension of Gandhi's bail came after the Congress leader filed an appeal seeking a stay on his conviction by a Surat magistrate court in the case. While sentencing Rahul for two years, the court gave Gandhi 30 days to appeal its order.