The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday slammed US President Donald Trump's "hell-hole" jibe as "uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste."
"We have seen the comments, as also the subsequent statement issued by the US Embassy in response. The remarks are obviously uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste," the MEA said.
It added that the comments do not reflect the reality of the India-US ties, which is based on mutual respect and shared interests.
The MEA's response comes after Trump shared content from conservative radio host Michael Savage’s podcast Savage Nation, calling India and China as hell-holes.
“A baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring in their entire family from China, or India, or some other hell-hole on the planet," Michael Savage wrote in a letter posted along with the podcast. "You don't have to go too far to see that. English is not spoken here anymore. There’s almost no loyalty to this country among the immigrant class coming in today, which was not always the case."
Earlier, when asked, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "We have seen some reports. That's where I will leave it."
After this, the US embassy in New Delhi clarified the comments with another statement attributed to Trump. "The President has said, 'India is a great country with a very good friend of mine at the top'," a US embassy spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, Iran also slammed Trump's post. "China and India are the cradles of civilisation. In fact, the hellhole is where its war-criminal president threatened to decimate civilisation in Iran," the Iranian Embassy in Hyderabad wrote on X.
