India followed mature diplomatic route to resolve Doklam issue: Ram Madhav

India followed a mature diplomatic route to resolve the Doklam issue with China and did not get provoked by the “unusual aggression” from the other side, BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav said on Tuesday.

A day after India and China agreed to end their military standoff in Doklam, Madhav welcomed the agreement between the two sides, saying both appreciated the fact that conflict is a heavy price to pay in bilateral relations.

“India has maintained great dignity, grace and majesty and tried to handle it in a diplomatic manner. Both have decided to step back. At the same time, we maintained firm ground position. It is a combination of firm ground position and mature diplomatic endeavour,” he told media.

The BJP leader said, “All of us should compliment the Indian government and agencies for their restraint and mature handling of the situation, not to get provoked. Largely Indian media also has not got into the trap of provocation and counter provocations. That has certainly helped the situation.”

He said he thought that was the way forward – “Not to get provoked. Focus, firmness on the ground and effort should be through diplomatic manoeuvres. That should be the way forward. At least for this government that will be the way forward,” he said.

Madhav said he was taken aback by the Chinese aggression over the Doklam issue.

“The kind of aggressive propaganda that we have experienced in last several weeks ever since the standoff happened in Doklam is a bit unusual. It was a bit unexpected.

“I was also a little bit surprised by the aggression and the very highly provocative nature of the campaign from the Chinese side, mainly from Chinese media and social media. Not so much from their government side except from their spokespersons,” he said refusing to say anything further with the Prime Minister slated to visit China next week.

He said India will continue to maintain peace as it is a pre-requisite for good bilateral relations.

“Strengthening of bilateral trade relations is an important item of the agenda of our country undoubtedly. As far as bilateral trade relations are concerned we have a strong bilateral trade relations. There is a huge trade deficit and that issue has been raised by our Commerce Minister to her Chinese counterpart and they agreed to address the issue of trade deficit problem also. It shows our commitment to strengthening bilateral trade and economic relations between the two countries,” he said.

Madhav, an RSS pointsman in the BJP organisation, described Pakistan as China’s client state and said that India will use all diplomatic channels to safeguard its interest.

“Pakistan has already become a client state of China. It is not a new thing. Practically many things in Pakistan are dictated by their good friend China. That is between the two countries but when it comes to India’s interest, India will show required firmness. It will use required diplomatic channels to secure national interest,” he said.

On the new realignment with India and US together and with Pakistan and China together, Madhav said that India no longer believes in hyphenation.

“We two together versus their two together. This is not the way forward for Indian diplomacy anymore,” he said.