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War with Pak is not an option, says Chidambaram

Last Updated 21 April 2019, 18:18 IST

Former Union minister P Chidambaram on Sunday tore into Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hyperbole on national security, making it aptly clear that war with Pakistan would not be an option for the government in power.

“War is not an option though in recent times we hear a lot of chest-thumping and drum-beating as if India is set to go to war. We need a strong army not to win a war but to avoid a war,” he said here.

The former home and finance minister was speaking at an event organised by the Observer Research Foundation to discuss the Congress party's national security strategy prepared by Lt Gen D S Hooda, one of the architects behind India's successful surgical strike in 2016.

Chidambaram reminded the Modi government that there was “definite limits to India's economic abilities” and “India can't aspire to take up tasks beyond its economic capacities”.

“There should be a balance between defence of India and development of India. The reality is that we still have a long way to go even to become a middle income country,” he said.

The lessons on ground realities from the senior minister of the UPA government came on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi repeatedly raised issues like Balakot air strike, Indo-Pak border tension and nuclear weapons in his election rallies.

“One odd surgical strike or air strike can’t change Pakistan’s behaviour. We need sustained campaign and dialogues must be based on visible results,” said Lt Gen Hooda, former Northern Army Commander.

On restoring the bilateral relations with Pakistan Chidambaram said some radical thinking was required to normalise the bilateral relations.

“If we have to make Pakistan change its behaviour, our (India's) behaviour has to change. If the two countries continue to demonise each other, they can never be friends. How is your (Jammu and Kashmir) policy a success if in 2018 there has been the highest number of killings of both military personnel and civilians. More questions are needed to be asked to change the policy,” he said.

In a separate event, the document was also officially released at the Congress headquarters in the presence of Chidambaram, Lt Gen Hooda and senior leader Jairam Ramesh.

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(Published 21 April 2019, 14:35 IST)

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