At the heart of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s new book, Why Bharat Matters, is the idea that in Prime Minister Modi’s vision of Bharat, people matter.
From rescue operations for Indian students and workers stranded abroad by wars and pandemics to dealing with multiple foreign actors in order to get the necessary supplies for the production of vaccines for a billion people (and then some friends abroad), there is no dearth of examples from Jaishankar’s ministry alone.
Taking India to the curious
The goal of the book is more than a mere recollection of achievements. It is an attempt to tell the reader that the world outside India is not magically just a passport, visa and ticket away. The safety, bargaining power, image, reputation, and the kind of experience an Indian worker, student, entrepreneur or tourist might have in today’s world depend a lot on the kind of work that Jaishankar and his team do. This point is clearly made in a chapter titled ‘Foreign Policy and You’.