Play of Words: Who's Disrespecting Who?

Recently a new book titled 'Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love' made headlines in the country. It is written by Mike Pompeo the former US Secretary of State from 2018 to 2021 under the Trump Administration.

Firstly he claimed that the US prevented a nuclear war between Bharat and Pakistan after the Balakot airstrikes in 2019. But I'm not concerned about this. What I'm concerned about is that he in this book has also made some unkind comments on the former External Affairs Minister of Bharat, the Late Smt Sushma Swaraj. 

In his book, he described her as "not an important player" and used American slang words like "goofball" and "heartland political hack" for her.

“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.”

“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.”

Here 'goofball' means a naive and stupid person who doesn't know what he's doing. And 'political hack' is a negative and disrespectful connotation for a person who's more supportive of a particular party than what is ethically right.

How could this American bureaucrat use such language for a person like Sushma Ji? I guess he is not aware of the accomplishments of that lady. So I would like to make an effort to make him aware of Bharat's reformed Videsh Mantralaya under Sushma Ji.

Before she attained the chair, the External Affairs Ministry was considered sleepy and arrogant. She turned it into an efficient and one of the best-performing Ministries of the Modi Government.

She understood the value of the Bharatiyas living abroad and how big an asset they are to the country. And she ensured that Bharatiyas abroad felt this importance. It was under her watch that the Bharat Sarkar showed the political will to fight for Kulbhushan Jadhav. She was also involved in the negotiations with ISIS to rescue our nurses from troubled Iraq.

She turned social media into a rescue and crisis management tool. It was her efforts that brought back the deaf-mute Gita from Pakistan, and Uzma too, who escaped a bad marriage and captivity. And also Gurpreet, the victim of an abusive marriage, who found herself in a German refugee camp. While these women were Bharat ki betiyaan, Sushma Ji became the benevolent Bharat Mata herself.

The External Affairs Ministry was stuck only to diplomacy, she turned it into a people-oriented one. She integrated people's policy into foreign policy.

Maybe in the US, the government is there only to serve those who fill their pockets so Pompeo will need help understanding what it is to serve the aam aadmi. That's why in his view she wasn't "important" and was a "goofball". 

Now who is what, that's very much understandable.

And even if I leave all that, how is this morally right to use such derogatory words for a person who's no more in this world? It's not just in our culture but in every culture, there is respect for the deceased ones. But Pompeo seems to have lost all respect for the dead.

But…But…But, there's a But.

One thing I couldn't overlook is that maybe our current Minister of External Affairs, Jaishankar was in agreement with Pompeo's views and if you read the excerpt from Pompeo's book again, you'd find that it indicates that maybe it was Jaishankar who used those terms. 

“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.”

Here he is saying that Jaishankar agreed as to why Pompeo had trouble with Sushma Ji. It means that at least to some extent Jaishankar agreed with the reasons for Pompeo's trouble.

Now see that Pompeo is quoting himself saying, "Careful, I'm a heartland political hack". So here Pompeo is making fun of himself but why would he say that in this manner if someone earlier had not referred to somebody else as a 'heartland political hack'? 

So according to my understanding, what would've happened is that Jaishankar may have called Sushma Ji a 'heartland political hack' and in response, Pompeo jokingly said "Careful, I'm a heartland political hack".

So if I'm anticipating right and if Pompeo has narrated the correct conversation in his book, then fingers would also be pointed at Jaishankar that he had a part to play in disrespecting Sushma Ji and that too in front of a foreigner.