India must also change for a changed Pakistan: Chidambaram

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram Sunday said in order to bring a change in Pakistan’s behaviour, India must also change its behaviour towards the neighbouring country.

The former home minister also said a way must be found to normalise India-Pakistan relations so as to answer the country’s “biggest external challenge” in terms of security and various other aspects.

“Whatever we do, we have to make Pakistan change its behaviour. That means we must also change our behaviour towards Pakistan. These attitudinal changes will happen over a period of time. But we must make an effort,” he said at a discussion titled — “Beyond Politics: Debating a new SecurityManifesto”, organised by the think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) here, the Indian media reproed.

Retired Lt General DS Hooda, who headed the army’s Northern Command when India carried out “surgical” strike in terror camps across the border in 2017, contended that “one surgical strike or air strike cannot change the behaviour of Pakistan.”

Gen (retd) Hooda also presented salient features of his report “India’s National Security Strategy” — a policy created by his team for the Congress party. Chidambaram said, “We build strong armies not to win a war but to avoid the war. If that is kept in mind everything will fall in place.”

“We may have tried everything and failed, but we have to try and try and try until we have a break. There is no reason why one day an Indian prime minister and a Pakistan prime minister cannot walk into each other’s territory and shake hands,” he said, adding there has to be some “radical” thinking, a departure from conventional thinking.

Chidambaram suggested that efforts should be made to resolve issues which are easy to sort out and batted for increased mutual visits by the people of the two countries. He said war is not an option for developing countries like India and Pakistan.

“Barring China, countries in the region are not even middle-income countries. The narrative of war is misleading. The war is not at all an option,” he said. “We cannot afford to do things beyond the economic capacity.”