Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday said it is not enough that the Indo-Pacific region is open and free, India must be so too.
Chidambaram’s comments come just a day after the first-ever Quad summit was held. The Quad is a coalition of four democracies—Japan, US, Australia and India. The leaders of the four nations took part in a summit on Friday, during which they vowed to strive for an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, inclusive, healthy, anchored by democratic values, and unconstrained by coercion.
"It is not enough that, as the Quad leaders said, the Indo-Pacific region is open and free. India must be open and free," Chidambaram tweeted.
"The repressive laws and the suppression of dissent are the not the hallmark of an open and free country," he added.
(With PTI inputs)