Amid economic and political turmoil in Pakistan, Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar heaped praises at the Pakistani citizens during the 8th Faiz Festival which is being organised at Alhamra in Lahore. He described the Pakistani people as the biggest Indian asset during a session, Hijr Ki Rakh, Visaal Kay Phool, Indo-Pak affairs, on the second day of the Faiz Festival, as reported by Pakistani outlet Dawn. The Congress leader seemingly attended the session online.
During the event, he advised businessmen, academics, and students of both India and Pakistan to bypass their governments and continue to meet each other outside the two countries. He also repeated the Pakistani narrative and blamed “Hindutva” for not holding talks with Pakistan. He claimed that India currently doesn’t have the “courage” to sit across the table with Islamabad.
Aiyar justified Pakistani acts of terrorism arguing that they “overreact” to the response from the Indian side. As per the Congress leader, Pakistanis become overfriendly when Indians are friendly and “over hostile” when Indians are “hostile to them”.
He said, “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.”
According to the Senior Congress leader, Indians have a wrong imagination of Pakistan and its citizens describing them as “welcoming”. As per Dawn, Aiyar said that he had never been to any country where he had been welcomed with such open arms as he was in Pakistan. He added that when he got posted in Karachi as consul general, everyone was looking after him and his wife.
The Congress leader has also written about several incidents in his book Memoirs of a Maverick that try to show Pakistan as a completely different country from what the Indians imagine, Dawn highlighted. He blamed the Modi government for not developing “goodwill” with Pakistan. He argued that goodwill was needed but instead of goodwill, there had been something opposite during the last 10 years since the formation of the first Narendra Modi government.
The Congress leader further asserted and asked Pakistanis to remember that an overwhelming majority (two-thirds) of Indians want to have a pro-Pakistan stance.
“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),” Aiyar was quoted saying by Dawn.
Aiyar referred to his friend, Satindar Kumar Lambah, the Indian envoy on the back channel, and stated that he had written a book about how he served the India-Pakistan relations under six different prime ministers. According to the Congress leader, it was the biggest mistake of the Modi government in the last ten years to refuse dialogues with India. However, it is important to note that India has not refused talks with Pakistan but maintained that terror and talks can’t go together and it is Pakistan’s prerogative to stop terrorism against India and create a conducive environment for talks.
Aiyar stated, “There were five Indian high commissioners who served in the Congress government and the BJP government in Islamabad and all five of them unanimously agreed that whatever are our differences, we must engage with Pakistan and the biggest mistake that we made in the last 10 years was the refusing dialogue. We have the courage to conduct surgical strikes against you but we don’t have the courage to sit across the table and talk.” However, he added that the initiative for peace must come from Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s former diplomat and ex-high commissioner to India Shahid Malik mentioned that Mani Shankar Aiyar was born in the Lakshmi Mansion in Lahore, not very far from here (event Venue). Malik questioned Aiyar’s remark that Pakistan should take the initiative. He claimed that Pakistan recently had suggested to India to start the dialogue process but the Indian government was reluctant to do that.
He added that Pakistan would be happy to restart the dialogue where it was left in 2008 and it included all issues, including Kashmir and terrorism.
Further, Aiyar blamed “Hindutva” for not holding talks with Pakistan adding that he considered it silly to expect that the Hindutva establishment in India would want to talk to Pakistan.
He also lamented that the same philosophy would remain in Delhi for the next five years as well. He reportedly said, “Under Hindutva, they are trying to imitate Pakistan, which became an Islamic republic. The Gandhi-Nehru answer to the Islamic republic was that they would not become a republic based on religion but a republic based on all religions. But their philosophy that lasted for 65 years was overthrown in 2014 and for the next five years we are going to have the same mindset in Delhi.”
He, however, declared that it’s a minority opinion because 63 percent of Indians have never voted for BJP.
He went on to advise that the civil society in both countries should continue dialogue until the awakening of the governments but for that, neither Pakistan nor India were any help due to visa issues. He suggested that businessmen, students, and academics should continue meeting outside India and Pakistan, bypassing the governments.
Earlier in the past, Mani Shankar Aiyar sought help from Pakistan to remove PM Modi so that India-Pakistan talks could progress.
Meanwhile, renowned artist Salima Hashmi, Indian artists Dr Malia, Arvind Chamka, Owais Bala, and Iqbal Fareed also expressed their views in the Faiz Festival in Lahore.
