When S Jaishankar calls Lord Krishna and Hanuman the greatest diplomats...
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00:00The biggest diplomat was Shri Krishna and Hanumanji.
00:04Hanumanji had so much intelligence with him and he had gone ahead of the mission.
00:10He was an all-purpose, multi-purpose diplomat.
00:21There is a curiosity.
00:23Why India way and why not Indian way?
00:27Is there any specific thinking behind this?
00:30Two, there is a lot of talk about strategic culture.
00:36You have mentioned Krishna and Krishna's choice.
00:42But in our country, Krishna is not the only one.
00:45Vishnu, Chanakya, Padmasambhava, Shiva.
00:48This is a rare thing that a sub-Indian serving foreign service for 5 decades and delivering teaching in Hindi.
00:56I grew up in Delhi.
01:27You tell me, who was the biggest diplomat in the world?
01:33I can give you a written answer that he will be a western.
01:38He will say, Metternich is the biggest diplomat in the world.
01:40If I ask him, what is the best book on diplomacy?
01:48He will say, it is Machiavelli, Harold Nicholson, Ernest Sartre.
01:54So, this was the reason for my writing.
01:59I want to make my own people understand.
02:03Look at home.
02:06If you ask me, after so much study, who do you think was the biggest diplomat in the world?
02:18I will say, the biggest diplomat was Shri Krishna and Hanuman Ji.
02:26I am giving you a very serious answer.
02:29If you look at them from the perspective of diplomacy,
02:33what was their situation, what mission was given to them,
02:37how they handled it.
02:40Hanuman Ji had so much intelligence with him.
02:45He had gone ahead of the mission.
02:47He had contacted Sita.
02:50He took the news of the whole of Lanka.
02:52He burnt the whole of Lanka.
02:54How was he a diplomat?
02:56He was a multipurpose diplomat.
03:00There were 10 big strategic concepts, which were international relations.
03:04I can give you an equivalent of every concept in Mahabharata.
03:09If you say, today we have a multipolar world.
03:13Even at that time, what was happening in the Kurukshetra field,
03:18it was a multipolar India.
03:20In which there were different states.
03:22Everyone was told, you are with them, you are with me.
03:25One or two non-aligns came out in between.
03:28Like Balram or Rukma.
03:31Now we say, it is a globalized world.
03:34It is interdependent.
03:36It is constrained.
03:39What was Arjun's dilemma?
03:41It was constrained.
03:43That he was interdependent.
03:45Emotionally interdependent.
03:47How can I fight against my relatives?
03:50It was not physical, material interdependence.
03:54It was emotional interdependence.
03:57Sometimes we say, Pakistan did this and that.
04:02Let's show strategic patience.
04:05The best example of strategic patience is Krishna Bhagwan.
04:10The way he handled Shishupal.
04:13He forgave him a hundred times.
04:16A hundred times.
04:17After that, you know what he did.
04:20These days, this term has come, rules based order.
04:25There is a limit.
04:28In politics, there are some rules and some laws.
04:38What is the story of Mahabharata?
04:41Those who violate the rules, like Karna or Duryodhana.
04:47In their last moments, they remember the rules.
04:54They say, don't do this.
04:56Because it is according to the rules.
04:58They had not followed the same rules all their lives.
05:02Today, sometimes we debate among ourselves,
05:06which country is bigger than us.
05:10Remember this.
05:12The proportion of Pandavas and Kauravas was 7 to 11.
05:18They had a small army.
05:21They had a small army, but they had a big mentality.
05:24They had a lot of discipline, creativity, intelligence,
05:28and Shri Krishna was with them.
05:30Sometimes, we talk about reputational cost.
05:34The value of the person you trust,
05:44the value of the person you trust,
05:47whether it is a party, a person, or a country,
05:51the value of reputation is very high.
05:54The reputation of the Pandavas was better than that of the Kauravas.
06:00There was a lot of difference in reputation.
06:04Sometimes, for a larger good, people have to make tactical adjustments.
06:16There are many examples of this.
06:19What Yudhishthira said about Ashwathama.
06:21Strategic deception.
06:23When Lord Krishna created an illusion of Surya,
06:31Jayadrath thought he was saved.
06:33We take this word so easily.
06:37Trojan horse.
06:39Achilles heel.
06:41Guardian knot.
06:43Where does this word come from?
06:45It comes from another story.
06:47I have no enmity with that.
06:50I read the same story.
06:52I am also interested in that.
06:54But I want to explain to our countrymen
06:58that you should also read about yourself.
07:02Understand the importance of this.
07:05Indian strategic culture will not be made from the experiences and stories of others.
07:10Indian strategic culture will be made from the epic of India.