Ram Madhav's message for 'romantic' Indians

SRINAGAR: The BJP's Jammu and Kashmir minder on Wenesday stressed the need for Indians to "evolve a strategic culture and mindset" and "develop a security doctrine" based on bilateralism that would not allow a third country to impinge on a two-way relationship. Party general secretary Ram Madhav contextualised his observations in the ongoing violence in the Kashmir Valley and separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's snub to some Opposition MPs who recently visited the state as part of an all-party delegation. "We lack a particular security culture and mindset. As a nation, we are romantic, we are happy with slogans. Sometimes we do not know what we say in our statements. So everyone says seek a political solution (to the Valley conflict). It is very fashionable to say there's no alternative to talks.

"But in strategy discourse, it is sometimes said that not talking is also part of strategy. After all you need two to talk. What is a political solution? Then they (the advocates of a resolution) say it is for the government to find out. It's final, there's no question that J&K is an integral part of India," Madhav emphasised. Madhav - who addressed a conference on "Homeland Security: Smart Border Management" convened by the India Foundation, an RSS-aligned think tank he is associated with, and industry chamber Ficci - took China's example to illustrate his point of Indians being "romantic". "The (Great) Wall of China is 1,600km long (actually 8,851.8km). It was built to protect China from the Manchu and Mongol invasions. In the last 1,200 years or more, the invasions on India happened through the Khyber Pass. Invasions, attacks, re-attacks. But why did not a single king in Delhi think of building a wall along the Pass? Because we believe in the concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbam, the world is one family. So how can we close borders? It's not in our culture. When managing borders, you need to look at certain things," Madhav said. He called for India to craft its security doctrine, adding that if there was anything that came "close" to one, it was the "Look East" policy, the brainchild of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. "The time has come for major intellectuals and the government to come together and, over the next two years, prepare a national security doctrine. Otherwise you keep getting hyphenated with the neighbours. Someone said the Prime Minister is visiting Vietnam to show China its place. This is not the case. At our (BJP) national executive in Bangalore (April 2015), we declared we believe in genuine bilateralism. What interest a third country has is not for me to bother. But we are very fond of hyphenations," Madhav said. Later, speaking to journalists, he denounced the separatists, alleging: "They want innocents to be killed, they don't want talks. We will and we are talking to people who believe in the constitutional framework. We also know how to deal with those who say they are outside the framework." Asked if he considered the distinction between the separatists and terrorists specious, Madhav said: "We have separate ways of dealing with both." Earlier in the day, junior home minister Hansraj Ahir suggested that the "behaviour of the separatists was similar to that of the terrorists".