Mike Pompeo's References to Sushma Swaraj 'Disrespectful': S. Jaishankar

New Delhi: Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar has criticised former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo for remarks the latter made about Sushma Swaraj in his new book.

In Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love, Pompeo referred to Swaraj as a “goofball” and “heartland political hack”.

Swaraj, who had served as external affairs minister during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first term (2014–2019), passed away in 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,” NDTV has quoted Pompeo as saying.

On Swaraj’s successor Jaishankar, Pompeo is much more complimentary: “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.”

Pompeo has claimed that Jaishankar too was unimpressed by Swaraj’s tenure. He writes, “He (Jaishankar) said that he could see why I had trouble with his predecessor, a goofball and a heartland political hack. “Careful, I’m a heartland political hack!” I replied in jest. He laughed, noting that if that were true, it would make me the first heartland political hack who had ever been an editor on the Harvard Law Review. Well played, J.”

Responding to these paragraphs, Jaishankar told PTI that he thought Pompeo had been “disrespectful” and that he (Jaishankar) had “great esteem” for Swaraj. “I have seen a passage in Secretary Pompeo’s book referring to Smt Sushma Swaraj ji. I always held her in great esteem and had an exceptionally close and warm relationship with her. I deplore the disrespectful colloquialism used for her,” Jaishankar said.