MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar in his second part of marathon interview with Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana said that China is the number one enemy of India, not Pakistan.
Former defence minister Sharad Pawar said that the incumbent government should not much worry about Pakistan and instead should focus on China. He said, as Indians, everyone thinks that Pakistan is the first enemy of India, but for the long term, China has been the number one enemy of the country.
“We cannot resolve an issue with China by the use of the military. Economically China is very strong now. Its target is now India. It can create trouble to India and it has got that all capabilities to create a nuisance for India. There is a huge difference between Pakistan and China’s military power. We need to use a diplomatic channel to resolve the border issue with China. Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to China and made friends with them. China president was given huge respect and hospitality when he came to India. They hug each other and Modi even made Indian cloth for China president. But all these bonhomie did not help to resolve the current issue,” Pawar said.
He also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to maintain the relationship with the neighbouring countries. ‘Once Nepal was close to India as a Hindu nation but, now it is closer to China. Indira Gandhi created Bangladesh, but a few days back China made an agreement with Bangladesh, that is also gone. We strained relationship with Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Once all these countries were with India, now no one is with us. This is a complete failure of the present leadership. We need to work out on our foreign policy,” said the former defence minister.
Pawar said that India’s economy is in doll drum, it once more required a leader like Manmohan Singh to bring it back on track. “When India was going through the financial crisis during the Narasimha Rao government, Manmohan Singh as a finance minister gave the direction to our staggering and crumbling economy. He successfully pulled our economy. I was also a member of the cabinet so seen very closely the work of Manmohan Singh. They rather going through the traditional route, used an altogether different route to bring back the economy. The credit goes to them. Today, also we need Manmohan Singh like a leader who can pull us out from this current financial crisis. But the incumbent government did not like the experts and their advice are also not taken seriously,” said NCP chief.
Pawar also added that Modi should have a dialogue with all party leaders and seek their advice. “One party and one leader cannot resolve all issue. We need collective leadership if the country wants to put back on the path of growth. During the UPA regime, we used to talk with various experts now this strategy is totally missing".