New Delhi (P.C.AICC) Pawan Khera said- Any challenge, which a family or a society or a country or the world faces brings a moment of test for every single member of the society, the country, the family and the world, where friends get tested, enemies get tested, the king gets tested, the ruler gets tested, the ruled gets tested. Covid-19 is one such moment in the history of the country and the world, where everybody is going through a test. As far as 130 crore Indian citizens are concerned, I think they have passed all tests. When the Government wanted them to stay indoors, they stayed indoors. The Government wanted them to come out in the balconies and clapped, they did that a bit over enthusiastically, but, they did that and the Government wanted them to light candles, they did that, so they passed every test. Donald Trump threatens India asking India to lift the ban on export of Hydroxychloroquine and immediately India lifts the ban, but, whether Donald Trump passed the test in this hour of crisis or not, is not our business to comment on. Whether we should have immediately buckled under pressure is something, which history is also watching us too. India comes from a tradition, where we understand our role and responsibility as a member of the larger family of the globe, of the world and we have never failed in our duty as a member of that committee of nations, but, there is a way. The Jair Bolsonarowrote a very touching, a very moving letter to our Government, requesting for Hydroxychloroquine quoting the Ramayana, quoting our scriptures, there is a way. There is a way of International relations. We come from a culture, where Baba Bharti, the Saint, had a horse called ‘Sultan’. He was fond of that horse, when the dacoit Kharag Singh tried to take the horse away by cheating Baba Bharti, by becoming a helpless lap up. Baba Bharti said- “you please take the horse, but, don’t narrate this story to anyone, because people will stop helping those in need.” Now, we come from that culture. I can understand that Donald Trump, not appreciating these finer aspects of our culture. I can understand that he is not aware of our culture, but we are aware of our culture, our Prime Minister is aware of our culture. We come from a tradition, where Late Smt. Indira Gandhi, when she was threatened by Britain and US during the Bangladesh liberation war. She put them in their place, she asked them not to interfere in the internal matters of India. It is an Indian challenge and India knows how to fight it and it will see this not in the correct light, if these two countries tried to interfere and she did so very effectively. We expect our Prime Minister to learn from our own traditions, to learn from our own history, we stand with this Government in this hour of crisis; we will not fail that test. Any decision that the Government takes, they will find the opposition standing with them, but, as a responsible opposition party, we need to remind our Prime Minister of our history, of our culture, of the way things are done. We should not get bogged down by threats. We should not forget our responsibility towards 130 crore Indian citizens, whether we are exporting 90 tonnes of relief material of PPE kits to Serbia despite a ban on export, whether we agree to lift the ban on export of Hydroxychloroquine. Our first responsibility is towards India, India is first, and everything else is later, that is one lesson that, we need to remind our Hon’ble Prime Minister in this hour of crisis. As I said, we stand by you, Mr. Prime Minister, but, please do not forget, our first responsibility as Government, as the opposition party is towards 130 crore Indians, everything else comes later.
