Exclusive: Govt needs to compromise to settle border row with China, says Kulkarni

In an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, Sudheendra Kulkarni, an aide to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee said that PM Modi should not commit the same mistake as Nehru did in the 1960s. Had he accepted the compromise formula offered by the then Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai and given up the claim on Aksai Chin then our border issue would have been settled long ago.

Hyderabad: One could say that Sudheendra Kulkarni has a penchant for controversies, especially when it comes to matters relating to India's relations with Pakistan and China. He invariably takes a position which is detested by the majority of the people in the country.

Kulkarni, who worked as a close aide of the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and later of Lal Krishna Advani, is at it again.

Even as the country is fuming about and talking of taking revenge for the deaths of 20 of its Jawans in an India-China border clash in the Galwan valley in Ladakh, Kulkarni is advising Indian government to go for a compromise. Going for a war is not advisable, hence give some, take some, settle down the border issue once and for all, is what he suggests.

In an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, he said, Modi should not commit the same mistake as Nehru did in the 1960s. Had he accepted the compromise formula offered by the then Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai and given up the claim on Aksai Chin then our border issue would have been settled long ago.

Not just in 1960, China has made the same offer a number of times, said Kulkarni.

As the then Prime Minister Vajpayee's aide, Kulkarni had accompanied him during his visit to China. Recalling his experience, he said that though the onus is not entirely on India, we must play our part in solving the issue.

We must make it very clear to China that you are not going to get Arunachal Pradesh back, which means that they must make a compromise on Arunachal Pradesh and we must make a compromise on Aksai Chin, he said.

Calling Narendra Modi a "realist" in his dealing with China, Kulkarni said that PM Modi is risking to disappoint a whole lot of his own followers who are out to say that he should exercise the military option.

Even at the risk of being called a traitor, I would say that the big troika of South Asia, namely India, China and Pakistan should come together and solve their problems with mutual cooperation, he said.

With a huge mandate behind him, Modi has got a historic opportunity to undo the past mistake and I am confident that the entire country will support him, he summed up.