India objects to Swedish daily's interview on President Pranab Mukherjee

New Delhi: The Indian government lodged a strong protest with Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter (DN) for publishing “slip of the tongue” comments and “off-the-record” remarks by President Pranab Mukherjee in an interview, saying it was done in a “most condescending” manner and was “unprofessional and unethical”.

The newspaper, in its e-edition, had said in a telephone conversation with DN prior to the interview’s publication, India’s ambassador to Sweden Banashri Bose Harrison made a direct request to retract parts of the interview on Bofors, and the ambassador also warned that the visit was at risk of being cancelled.

This was dismissed as “baseless” by MEA sources, who said the May 31-June 2 visit was never in doubt. The ambassador, in a letter to Dagens Nyheter editor-in-chief Peter Wolodarski, said she was asked to convey the “disappointment of our authorities in Delhi” at the way the interview was presented, saying “it was both unprofessional and unethical on your part to include an off-the-record correction made by the President after the interview had ended”.