NEW DELHI: Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Tuesday targeted the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for not taking action after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. 

Jaishankar claimed that the previous UPA government decided "not to do anything" after the attacks with the justification that "it would cost more to attack Pakistan than not attacking it". 

He said the countries of the Global South trust India to take up their cause and positions in the world as he described India as a voice of the 'Global South'. 

Jaishankar was addressing a gathering at a talk on 'Foreign Policy the India Way: From Diffidence to Confidence'. He said that the country has a moral obligation towards some of the countries that were under colonial rule and could not recover. Jaishankar noted that such nations couldn't rebuild as quickly as India did. 

"We are a voice of the Global South, which is about 125 countries in the world. These countries trust India to take up their cause, their positions in the world," he said. 

The minister said that India has some challenges at the borders and the key to defending them is not to just posture in public but to build infrastructure, support the military and create a system that will respond whenever the border is under threat. 

Calling out the UPA government, he said that terrorism was accepted in the "defensive era". 

He claimed, "After Mumbai (attacks), the national security advisor of the previous UPA government wrote (that) 'we sat, we debated. We considered all the options. Then we decided to do nothing. We decided to do nothing and the justification was we felt the cost of attacking Pakistan was more than the cost of not attacking Pakistan". 

"I leave you to judge," he said. 

Speaking further, Jaishankar said, "I get a lot of noises from the Western press. If they criticise our democracy, it's not because they lack information, it is because they think they are also political players in our election." 

"I read an article today where some Western media said, it is so hot in India, why are they holding elections at this time? I read that article and I wanted to say, in that heat my lowest turnout is higher than your highest turnout in the best record. These are the games that are being played with us. These are politics," he added. 

"These are our domestic politics which is going global, global politics which feels they must now intrude in India. So they actually think they are part of our electorate. It's time today that we disabuse them. And the best way that we do that is by confidence," he further said.