Confident That NSA For MP Cow Slaughter Will Be Lifted

Former Union home and finance minister P. Chidambaram is busy putting together the Congress manifesto before the forthcoming general elections. His book Undaunted: Saving the Idea of India (Rupa), a collection of his articles pub­lished in The Indian Express in 2018 is just out. Chidambaram talks to Satish Padmanabhan on a range of topics from the Pulwama terror attack, the grand opposition alliance to Rafale deal and cow vigilantes. Excerpts…

- Satish Padmanabhan

How should India react to the Pulwama terror attack? How would have you handled it as home minister?

I condemn the Pulwama incident. But the alleged perpetrator is an Indian, a Kashmiri. He is not a Pakistani. He claims to have been influenced or indo ctrinated by the Jaish-e-Mohammad, maybe that’s true. But if young men are pushed into the arms of militant organisations, whatever we do on the border, whatever we do to contain Pakistan, whatever we do to stop infiltration, whatever we do of cross-border action, is not going to yield any results. We have to win the hearts and minds of the people of Kashmir Valley.

But after such an incident the demand for even more muscular action, the demand for a strong leader only gets louder. Do you really think it is possible to cool down temperatures at this juncture?