Devil's Advocate: Ex-NSA says N-deal is a must for India

QUOTE UNQUOTE: Brajesh Mishra says it will be a loss for India not to go ahead with the N-deal.

          

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Keywords: National Security Advisor, Brajesh Mishra

Karan Thapar: The only anomaly could be the question that can China which is a totalitarian country play a role in encouraging democratic forces in Pakistan?

Brajesh Mishra: Yes, why not. They themselves say that they have a democracy of a kind. It may not be a vested democracy but I don’t see them opposing the democratic position in Pakistan.

Karan Thapar: Should the initiative of creating this three party concerted action be taken by Indian government?

Brajesh Mishra: I believe so, yes. We are affected by events in Pakistan. We should do it.

Karan Thapar: So, we should in a sense be the first to get in touch with Washington and Beijing.

Brajesh Mishra: If we are not already doing that...

Karan Thapar: Well there are no signs of doing it and there are no acknowledgements of doing it. If there are any whatsoever, they are behind the scene. So if we are not doing it, you are saying that the Indian government should get in touch with Washington and Beijing, meet, coordinate policy and the three countries should together work effectively to support democracy in Pakistan.

Brajesh Mishra: Yes. And we don’t need to tom-tom about it and we don’t need to go public and say what we have done.

Karan Thapar: So we need to be strategic and silent?

Brajesh Mishra: No. But we need to be discreet about it.

Karan Thapar: Discreet but effective. And the reason why discussion is important is because you don’t want the Pakistanis to feel that they are pressured.

Brajesh Mishra: No, the reason is that I don’t want any force in Pakistan to say that the US was meddling in Pakistan or any other country is interfering. No. That is not my idea. My idea is to support the democratic forces there, which have already given a verdict. I don’t want to give a chance to the extremists in others that India is meddling in our affairs.