Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar on Saturday said that billionaire investor George Soros is old, rich, prejudiced and dangerous and invests resources to shape discourse.
Soros, a 92-year-old businessman who supports liberal causes, said on Thursday that the ongoing turmoil in Gautam Adani’s business empire could weaken Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s grip on the government.
Responding to a question during a session at the Raisina@Sydney discussion, Jaishankar said Soros is an old, rich, prejudiced man sitting in New York who still thinks that how the world works is based on his ideas.
Jaishankar said that now if I could stop till old, rich and prejudiced, I would have let him stay, but he (Soros) is old, rich, prejudiced and dangerous. He said that a few years ago in this conference, Soros had accused India of hatching a conspiracy to take away the citizenship of lakhs of Muslims.
The Foreign Minister said, we are aware of the dangers arising due to those external interventions. If you do this kind of blackmail, then it will really damage the fabric of the society. Jaishankar said it would be interpreted differently in different countries where people like him think elections are good only when the person of their choice wins.
If there are other results of the election, then it will be said that there is a flaw in democracy. He said that globalization provides unfettered opportunities but also paves the way for organizations to shape discourse, move money and advance their agenda. All this is done in the name of advocating a transparent open society, the External Affairs Minister said.
Significantly, the Adani group has been under severe pressure after American short-seller Hindenburg Research accused it of accounting fraud and stock manipulation on January 24. The group has dismissed these allegations as malicious, baseless and a calculated attack on India.
