Mumbai: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday underscored the need for “constantly” engaging with Pakistan, saying India cannot wish away its neighbour.
He also criticised the Narendra Modi government’s “flip-flop” policy on Pakistan. “I believe we must constantly engage with Pakistan.
There is no other way out. You can’t wish away Pakistan. We are neighbours today, we will be neighbours for hundreds of years,” the former Union Finance and Home Minister said at an Asia Society function here this evening.
But he was quick to add that “given the current stand-off with Pakistan, we must be able to choose the subject on which we engage, the place we will engage, the time we will engage and the level (at) which we will engage”. “It can’t be either we embrace each other or we don’t even look at each other.
That’s the kind of flip-flop this government is been following. We have to have a constant talks with Pakistan,” he added.
Describing the NDA government raking up the Balochistan issue publicly as an “absolutely foolish move”, he said, “For the last several years we have had the cover of deniability. That cover is blown now. It was an absolutely foolish move.”
PTI