India should
not be scared of China: Advani
Interview to Shantanu Nandan Sharma and Shubham Mukherjee in
The Economic Times |
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March 30 2008, |
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How has been the response to your book? Any call from
the Congress or the Left? |
No
one from the Congress or the Left has called me up for the book,
but many people across the parties have praised my effort. Most
of the top industrialists in the country attended the book launch
functions in Delhi and Mumbai. In Mumbai, over 300 individuals,
including top industrialists, attended the function.
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Why did you meet Sonia Gandhi? Was it an ice-breaking
exercise on the pretext of your book? |
No.
That was not the reason. I just decided to hand over a copy
of my book to the Prime Minister and one to Sonia Gandhi. I
did not consult anyone for that matter, and the move was not
political at all. Mrs Gandhi was very cordial. I went along
with my wife and we had a cup of coffee there.
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Why do you think the meeting was politicised? |
I
dont think Mrs Gandhi was taken into confidence before the Congress
decided to speak out on my couresy visit. It would not have
been that way then.
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Was the launch of the book timed according to the country’s
political climate? India may witness general elections anytime
this year... |
No.
I did not know a year back that I would be projected as the
Prime Ministerial nominee for the BJP. in the last two to three
years, I have not been so active politically, and hence I had
more time for myself. My wife and daughter were insisting that
I write about my life and I began writing the book.
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Do you think we are heading for elections soon? |
A
few months ago, I thought we will have a mid-term poll, but
at present, I feel, elections will be held in 2009 only. Both
the Prime Minister and Prakash Karat talk tough on nuke deal,
but none of them need to think about their own elections (laugh).
The UPA is a prisoner of opportunistic alliances which have
diametrically opposite views on economic and foreign policies.
Unlike the Left, we are not opposed to friendship with the US,
but we do feel that it should be a partnership of equals.
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Had the Congress taken you on board from the beginning, would
you have supported the deal? |
We are opposed
to the Hyde Act. Had the Congress consulted us from the beginning,
we would have probably found a way out legally. But they were
more concerned about the Left. We suggested setting up of a
Parliamentary committee but that did not work out.
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If the BJP comes to power, what would be your priorities?
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We will emphasise
on agriculture, irrigation and rural infrastructure. We will
continue with the economic reforms. But at the same time, we
need to ensure that the gulf between the rich and the poor is
not widened.
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What do you think of Congress’ projection of Rahul Gandhi
as the future leader of the party? |
I won’t
like to comment on this subject.
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But you had earlier commented on Rahul Gandhi? |
I said this
much that I don’t support dynastic politics.
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Are you bringing in new faces to the BJP? It’s widely
speculated that you want Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi
to be your successor. |
We have quite
a large number of young leaders. We are grooming future leaders.
I have not said that Narendra Modi is my successor. We have
a number of bright leaders, including Modi. Yes, what he (Mr
Modi) has demonstrated in Gujarat by good governance is extraordinary.
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BJP’s development agenda back-fired in the previous
elections. What will be the agenda this time? |
We became
over-confident last time. The broad issues this year will be
price rise, farmers’ plight and security lapses by the
government etc. We will also project the contrast between our
coalition and the present UPA. Let people decide which coalition
is better.
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Are you working on any new alliances? Your relations
with the Shiv Sena are not the same... |
Nothing as
of now. We have good relations with the Sena. I just met up
with the Sena chief on my Mumbai visit.
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Recently, China has taken an aggressive stand against
India. Is India’s response adequate? |
Lately, their
(Chinese government’s) attitude towards India has changed
a lot. Whether it’s the issue of Arunachal Pradesh, Tibet
or Dalai Lama, they have become very aggressive. And India’s
response to that is not adequate at all
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Do you think India is scared of China? |
The way we
have been handling the Chinese issue clearly conveys that we
are scared of them. But that is not necessary. Why should we
be scared of them? I used to praise China because they were
willing to strengthen the economic ties with India even though
border disputes remained. However, things have changed recently.
The way they have been claiming Arunachal Pradesh as theirs
is not acceptable. What our government has done — it has
cancelled Vice-President’s meeting with Dalai Lama! These
steps are not justified.
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