'63% Of Indians Never Voted For BJP, Pakistanis Biggest Asset Of India': Mani Shankar Aiyar

Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has slammed the Narendra Modi government for failing to have a dialogue with Pakistan, Dawn reported.

Calling people of Pakistanis are biggest asset of Indians, Aiyar 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,"

He was speaking during a session, 'Hijr Ki Rakh, Visaal Kay Phool, Indo-Pak affairs', on the second day of the Faiz Festival at Alhamra.

The Congress leader claimed that Pakistanis have always welcomed him with open arms. Recounting his time as consul general in Karachi, he described the care and concern he and his wife received from the local community. These anecdotes, chronicled in his book 'Memoirs of a Maverick,' paint a contrasting picture of Pakistan, challenging prevalent Indian preconceptions.

However, he lamented the absence of reciprocated goodwill between the two nations, particularly highlighting a decline in relations over the past decade since the BJP government came to power.

"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 referred to his friend, Satindar Kumar Lambah, the Indian envoy on the back channel, and said he had written a book about how he served the India-Pakistan relations under six different Prime Ministers. "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," the 82-year-old leader said.

When questioned about the possibility of progress on the Kashmir issue, Aiyar reflected on the significant strides made during the Musharraf regime. He highlighted the promising developments achieved through backchannel discussions, expressing confidence that similar constructive dialogue could be reignited in the future.

He continued, "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." However, he said that 63 per cent of Indians never voted for BJP.

The Congress leader claimed that the civil society from both sides should continue dialogue and the businessmen, students and academics should continue meeting outside India and Pakistan.