Amitabh Bachchan, a Bollywood megastar, lauded External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday for saying India is “not a bully”.
Mr Jaishankar was questioned at an event last week if India was viewed as “a big bully” throughout the subcontinent and the Indian Ocean region.
“When you say India is perceived as a big bully, you know, big bullies don’t provide USD 4.5 billion when the neighbours are in trouble,” he said.
Jaishankar’s reaction came months after Maldives President Mohamad Muizzu remarked, in an apparent jab at India, that no country had the right to “bully us”.
“We may be small but this doesn’t give them the licence to bully us,” he remarked in January, after a diplomatic conflict with India over disparaging social media.
