Itanagar, Nov. 5: BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav today blamed a clash of civilizations for the thorny relations between India and China. He was speaking at the Fourth Rutum Kamgo Memorial Lecture here at Vivekananda Hall.
"We differ from the Chinese in many ways," Madhav said, adding that China is not just any other country.
Madhav said India's foreign policy is flawed because it assumes that "everyone is like us" and that it must be framed based on how the other countries will react.
The BJP leader said "the biggest myth is that China is just another country but we must not forget that they too are a 5,000-year-old civilization" which has led to formation of their own unique ideas and strategies.
He said China suffers from the "Middle Kingdom Syndrome", a theory that places China at the centre of the world.
Madhav also backed Union minister of home affairs Kiren Rijiju's recent comments about the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
On Sunday, Rijiju who is an MP from Arunachal, had said Nehru let the people of the Northeast down in the 1962 War against China by surrendering the country.
Madhav said Nehru was convinced that China was not a threat after signing the Panchsheel Treaty, which set guidelines to govern peaceful relations between the two countries. "The Chinese attacked even before the ink from the treaty had dried," Madhav said today and added that the then Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong, believed in "armed co-existence rather than peaceful co-existence".
"It was only after 1962 that Nehru realised that China was a bigger enemy (than Pakistan)," he added.
Madhav said "there is a sense of unease and mistrust between the two nations" and that overcoming these issues and moving forward is the biggest challenge.
India and China can move towards a good future if the two countries can come together, he added.