Romantic' approach towards international relations weakened India, says BJP

Hyderabad: Being coldblooded, pragmatic and using culture strategically are important characteristics of a strong and sound foreign policy, said V. Ram Madhav, national general secretary of the BJP, who on Sunday slammed the previous Congress governments for having a “romantic” approach towards international relations.

Giving the example of the “Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai” phrase made popular by the Congress government and the Panchsheel Treaty between India and China, he expressed that such “romantic” approaches did not work as they could not stop the two countries from going to war in 1962.

Mr Madhav was participating in a talk in Hyderabad organised by Awareness in Action on “Look East, Act East and What Next?”

The importance of connecting with Asian neighbours based on Hindu culture also formed the crux of his talk as he stressed on Sunskriti, one of the five pillars of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government's “Panchamrit” approach towards foreign policy. This was also stressed upon by EFLU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Sunaina Singh, who also spoke at the event.

Mr Madhav said that the present government planned to strengthen relationships with Southeast Asian countries by developing road connectivity between North Eastern states of India and SE Asian nations, till Indonesia, and said that the BJP forming a government in Assam was the first step towards it. He added that the north-eastern states of India would act as a pivot in the Act East policy of the country.

Mr Madhav also questioned continuation of India in the Commonwealth, a group of nations which were formerly under the British Empire.

Speaking on the ongoing crisis in Kashmir, he blamed it on the Congress government which was in power when the Simla Agreement and Delhi Agreement were signed following the 1971 India-Pakistan war.

He said that the then Congress government could have taken back Pakistan occupied Kashmir from Pakistan's stranglehold if release of PoK by Pakistan would have been made one of the conditions in the agreements.

He also said that the PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir had no locus standi in India-Pakistan relationships and only the Central government could have a stand in it.

Mr Ram Madhav also denounced the support being shown towards slain militant Burhan Wani by some sections of society and media saying that Wani had 14 criminal cases against him including eight of attacks on security forces along with a Rs 10 lakh reward.

At the meeting Mr Madhav also said that the present government had plans of having a good presence in the Indian Ocean region which was home to nearly half of trading and military ships’ traffic in the world and that “Asia-Pacific” region needed to be renamed as “Indo-Pacific”, which the present government was working on.