Cong leader Mani Shankar Aiyar lauds hospitality of Pakistanis

Lahore: Congress leader and former Indian diplomat Mani Shankar Aiyar has said that he had never been to any country where he had been welcomed with such open arms as he was in Pakistan.

“The Pakistanis, from my experience, have been the people who react, perhaps overreact, to the other side. If we are friendly, they are over-friendly and if we are hostile, they get over hostile,” Aiyar was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

The Congress parliamentarian made the remarks during a session titled 'Hijr Ki Rakh, Visaal Kay Phool, Indo-Pak Affairs', on the second day of the Faiz Festival at Alhamra in Lahore on Saturday.

Aiyar said when he got posted in Karachi as the Consul General, everyone was looking after him and his wife. He has written about several incidents in his book, Memoirs of a Maverick, which shows Pakistan as a completely different country to what the Indians imagine.

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 in 2014, he said.

Ties between India and Pakistan nosedived following a spate of terror attacks on Indian military bases by Pakistan-based terror groups since January 2016. India has made it clear that it will not hold dialogue with Pakistan as 'terrorism and talks cannot go hand-in-hand'.

Aiyar said it is silly to expect that the Hindutva establishment in India would want to talk to Pakistan, the report quoted him as saying.

“All I ask the people (of Pakistan) is to remember that (Prime Minister) 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),” he said.

The Congress leader suggested that businessmen, students and academics should continue meeting outside India and Pakistan, bypassing the governments in both countries.