On Friday, at an Economic Times (ET) roundtable, External Affairs Minister (EAM) Subrahmanyam Jaishankar rebutted United States President Joe Biden over his “xenophobia” remark on India. 
S Jaishankar said, “India is not xenophobic and is instead a very open and welcoming nation.” He backed this up by referring to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and hailed it as a move that helps people who need to come to India. India is open to people who have a need and a claim to come to India, he added.
Further, he refuted the allegation that the Indian economy is stalling, saying it is robust.
In the history of the world, India has been a society that has been very open and welcoming to diverse cultures.
What were Biden’s remarks?
At a fundraising event in Washington for his 2024 re-election campaign, marking the start of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Biden spoke about the robust US economy.
He credited this to how embracing the US is towards immigrants, “immigrants are what makes us strong,” he said.
He compared and referred to other countries as ‘stalling so badly economically’ due to ‘reluctance to accept immigrants’. He labelled the countries as “xenophobic”. Those countries are India, China, Russia and Japan.
Quoting Biden’s words, he said “Why? Because we welcome immigrants. Think about it. Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants, due to their “fear” of immigrants.”
The statement being politically incorrect, the White House attempted to rectify it by explaining that Biden blamed “xenophobia” for the economic woes of India and other countries, “They are xenophobic,” he said. and lumping it together with economically troubled nations.
What does xenophobia mean?
Merriam-Webster defines xenophobia as the “fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything strange or foreign” you have come in contact with.
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