Former US State Secretary calls Sushma Swaraj 'goofball' in new book, says ex-Indian EAM was 'not an important player'

Former US Sercretary of State Mike Pompeo is making headlines these days due to the contents of his new book and some shocking claims he's made in it.

Pompeo says that he never saw his Indian couterpart Sushma Swaraj as in important player on the Indian foreign policy team but got along famously with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

Sushma Swaraj served as external affairs minister in the first Modi government from May 2014 to May 2019. She died in August 2019.

"On the Indian side, my original counterpart was not an important player on the Indian foreign policy team.

"Instead, I worked much more closely with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, a close and trusted confidant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," 59-year-old Pompeo writes in his book 'Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love'.

Who is Mike Pompeo?

A confidant of then US president Donald Trump, Pompeo was the CIA Director in his administration from 2017 to 2018 and then served as the Secretary of State from 2018 to 2021.

"My second Indian counterpart was Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. In May 2019, we welcomed "J" as India's new foreign minister. I could not have asked for a better counterpart. I love this guy.

"English is one of the seven languages he speaks, and his is somewhat better than mine," the former top American diplomat wrote.

"Professional, rational, and a fierce defender of his boss and his country," is how Pompeo described EAM Jaishankar.

Pompeo refers to Sushma Swaraj as 'goofball'

"We hit it off immediately. In our first meeting, I was bemoaning, in very diplomatic speech, that his predecessor had not been particularly helpful," he said.

"He (Jaishankar) said that he could see why I had trouble with his predecessor, a goofball and a heartland political hack," wrote Pompeo, who is now exploring the possibility of a 2024 presidential run.