US envoy Eric Garcetti offers assistance in Manipur, baffles Congress

The U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti's statement on Manipur violence, offering assistance to New Delhi to resolve the crisis in the north eastern state has stoked controversy. Congress leader Manish Tewari, highlighting the statement, said he has never heard an US Ambassador making a statement of this nature about the internal affairs of India. 

While expressing sorrow over the ethnic violence, Garcetti, who was in Kolkata on Thursday, stated that one need not have to be an Indian to care when children or individuals die in this sort of violence." 

"You don't have to be an Indian to care when children or individuals die in this sort of violence," Garcetti said."There has been a lot of progress in the northeast states... We stand ready and enable to assist if asked but we know that this is an Indian matter. We can bring more collaboration, more projects, more investment if that peace is in place." 

Garcetti's comments soon snowballed into controversy forcing External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi to respond. "I am not sure foreign diplomats would usually comment on internal developments in India, but I would not like to comment without seeing what has exactly been said," he added.

However, Manish Tewari too expressed his surprise at the statement. "To the best of my recollection going back atleast four decades in public life, I have never heard an US Ambassador making a statement of this nature about the internal affairs of India. We faced challenges in Punjab, J&K , North East over the decades and surmounted those with sagacity and wisdom."

"Even when Robin Raphel would be loquacious on J&K in the 1990’s, the US Ambassador’s in India were circumspect. I doubt if the new @USAmbIndia @ericgarcetti is cognisant of the convoluted and  torturous history of US-India relations and our sensitivity about interference perceived or real, well intentioned or mal intentioned into our internal affairs," the tweet read.