New Delhi: Not just 19 crore Pakistanis, but even Indian leadership is anxious about who will become the next Pakistani Prime Minister.
BJP’s general secretary Ram Madhav said the new government in Pakistan must come out of the “cold war mentality”. He hoped that the new regime reciprocates India’s “approach of sovereign equality, natural friendship, and not just go by pre-conditions.”
Speaking at a book launch function in New Delhi on Wednesday, the senior BJP leader said that “India looks at every election in Pakistan with a lot of hope”, and the new Pakistani government should “reciprocate this approach of our government”.
Madhav urged that while natural friendship with Islamabad was imperative, there “should be a conducive atmosphere for natural friendship as well”.
He wished the new elected Pakistani government to be a strong one, which is not subservient to “multiple power centres”. Recalling former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Pakistan visit in 2015, Madhav said, “She spent half an hour with PM Nawaz Sharif and three hours with then Army chief of Pakistan”.
Hinting at India’s readiness to talk with Pakistan’s new government, Madhav said, “India as a democratic country would like to engage with the elected leadership in Pakistan.
At the country-to-country level, we would like to see a stable, democratically elected government, which is ready to extend the hand of friendship and Indian government won’t hesitate even for a moment to engage with such a regime.”
However, Madhav was quick to put a rider to bilateral talks: Pakistan must stamp out terrorist activities from its soil. “No country will engage with another one, where terrorism is active,” said the senior BJP leader.
“We’ve tried to strengthen our relationship with our Western neighbour. In fact, we’ve always publicly acknowledged the principle of sovereign equality,” he added.
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