Indian statement ‘accurate’ record of events: Ministry of External Affairs
New Delhi, August 30
On the controversy of divergent wording in the Indian and US statements earlier this week, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) today said “our press release is an accurate and faithful record of what transpired in the conversation”.
The issue has arisen after India and the US issued statements on August 26, following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden.
The Indian statement mentioned that PM Modi raised the issue of Hindus in Bangladesh, while the White House in its statement did not mention Bangladesh.
Congress leader Pawan Khera had questioned on X, “If our Prime Minister raised the issue of ‘safety and security of the minorities, particularly Hindus’ in Bangladesh, why did Joe Biden not think it was important enough to mention in his press note?”
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal today said: “I am aware of the contents of the conversation between the Prime Minister and the President and I can tell you that our press release is an accurate and faithful record of what transpired in the conversation”.
Jaiswal said the absence of an aspect in one press release or the other is not evidence of its absence in the conversation itself. Claims being made in India are uninformed, tendentious, and motivated and betray total lack of familiarity with the process of how such contacts between leaders are organised and then followed up on, the MEA spokesperson said.
Press releases issued after such conversations between leaders are not like ‘joint statements’ where every word is negotiated and mutually agreed upon, Jaiswal said. Such press releases are not meant to be comprehensive readouts of such conversations and it is not unusual for two sides to emphasise different aspects of the same conversation in their respective readouts.
