NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Friday dismissed the claims of US Senator Elissa Slotkin who said that democracy “doesn’t put food on the table”. Giving example of India, Jaishankar said that the biggest democracy in the world was capable of feeding over 800 million people.
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“Senator you said that democracy doesn’t put food on your table. Actually, in my part of the world, it does because it actually, today because we are a democratic society, we give nutrition support, and food to 800 million people and for whom that is a matter of how healthy they are and how full their stomachs are. So, the point I want to make is look different parts of the world are going through different conversations. Please do not assume that this is a kind of universal phenomenon, it is not,” he said.
He was speaking at the Munich security conference on the topic ‘Live to Vote Another Day: Fortifying Democratic Resilience’.
“There are parts where it is working well, maybe there are parts where its not and the parts which are not, I think people need to have honest conversations about why it is not but I would argue that as to an extent as someone dispassionately viewing it, which was your question, there are some problems, a lot of it is a accumulated problem of the model of globalisation that we have followed for the last 25-30 years. I think a lot of chickens have come home to roost. So, yes there are issues but from our point of view today not all over the world but let’s not make that universal,” he added.
India’s rank at the Global Hunger Index last year was 105 of 127 countries which was rejected by the central government who called it a “flawed measure of ‘hunger’ and does not reflect India’s true position.”
He also dismissed the claims that democracy had weakened globally and highlighted India’s electoral processes mentioning recently concluded elections in Delhi and Parliamentary elections held in 2024.
“Well before I do that, I appeared to be an optimist in what is relatively a pessimistic panel, if not room. I will begin by sticking up my finger and don’t take it badly, it is the index finger. This, the mark you see on my nail, is a mark of a person who has just voted. We just had an election in my state just over. Last year, we had a national election. In Indian elections, roughly two-thirds of the eligible voters vote. At the national elections, the electorate of about 900 million, about 700 million voted. We count the votes in a single day,” he said.