Mani Shankar Aiyar, a Congress veteran and former Union minister, reportedly referred to Pakistanis as the "biggest asset of India" on Sunday and criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for refusing to engage in dialogue with Pakistan.
Aiyar, known for his outspokenness, also advocated for open communication channels between India and Pakistan during a session titled "Hijr Ki Rakh, Visaal Kay Phool, Indo-Pak affairs" on the second day of the Faiz Festival at Alhamra, as reported by Pakistan's Dawn.
“The Pakistanis, from my experience, have been the people who react perhaps overreact to the other side. If we are friendly, they are overfriendly, and if we are hostile, they get over hostile,” the former diplomat stated.
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He mentioned that he had never experienced such warm hospitality in any other country as he did in Pakistan. Recalling his time as consul general in Karachi, he noted how everyone took care of him and his wife.
“All I ask the people (of Pakistan) is to remember that Modi has never received more than one-third of the votes but our system is such that if has one-third of the votes, he has two-thirds in the seats. So two-thirds of Indians are ready to come towards you (Pakistanis).”
When asked if any progress was possible on Kashmir, Aiyar said there was tremendous progress on Kashmir during the Musharraf regime and we had reached such a good point during the back channel discussion that whenever Kashmir was brought up again, we would arrive at some discussion point, just as there was when Khurshid Kasuri was the foreign minister.
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His statements and thoughts reflected a stark contrast to India's official position on Pakistan at global forums, which is that "talks and terror don't go together."
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had earlier said Pakistan's core policy has been to "use cross-border terrorism to bring India to the table," adding that India made that policy irrelevant by "not playing that game now."
Recently, a complaint was filed against Mani Shankar's daughter, Suranya Aiyar, over a social media post on January 20 that condemned the 'Pran Pratishtha' of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22.
Suranya Aiyar posted on Facebook on January 19 that she would be fasting for three days beginning January 22 in support of the "Muslims of India" against what she called "in the name of Hinduism and nationalism in Ayodhya."
(With inputs from DAWN)
