Contribution of Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan should also be regarded like that of Wadiyars: Mani Shankar Aiyar

Mysuru: Former Union minister and ex-Indian diplomat Mani Shankar Aiyar said that the concept of uniform civil code-one nation, one election, one religion was a dangerous idea to build India adding that it can’t work in the largest democracy. 

During a panel discussion with Aroon Raman on ‘decades of diplomacy, democracy and political developments’, at the second day of 9th edition of Mysuru Literature Festival, on Sunday, Mani Shankar said, “We need to celebrate every Indian, securing unity in diversity and upholding secularism to build India.”  

Mani Shankar said, “India belongs to all its citizens. All have rights. Among 1.40 billion people, 200 million are Muslims. A Tamil Brahmin refugee from Lahore of Pakistan is as much accepted as any general Indian in this country. Like the phrase ‘Ishwar Allah Tero Naam’, there are different paths to reach the truth. We need to live together with our own identities, culture, language. We should respect each other by sharing, like Karnataka shares river Cauvery with Tamil Nadu.” 

“Contribution of Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan, Mirza Ismail should also be regarded as much as the contributions of Wadiyars,” he added. He even shared an anecdote as to how Hindu and Muslim community members have lived in harmony and bonding at several places for years. 

“Among 150 speeches during the previous Parliamentary elections, PM Narendra Modi attacked the Muslim community in at least 110 speeches. As much as 66% of India did not vote for the BJP. Only one-third voted for Modi. Rest should get into the INDIA alliance to build a diverse nation,” he said. 

To a question, Manishankar said that personal choice of a candidate works while voting for gram panchayat elections. But for the general election, the candidate would be irrelevant. It is the party or the alliance which will lead for next five years that would matter for voting, he said. 

He shared his experiences of working with different Prime Ministers and said he liked Jawaharlal Nehru the most. As a Pilot, Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister, but he had a lot of ideas and he performed well, Mani Shankar lauded. 

The two-day fest hosted by Mysuru Literary Forum and Charitable Trust and Mysuru Book Clubs Charitable Trust, witnessed 40 panel discussions on varied topics by 104 authors and 27 artists from Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi to Anita Nair, H R Leelavathi and Nagathihalli Chandrashekar.