Synopsis
Mani Shankar Aiyar, a former diplomat and Congress leader, believes that deposed Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina should be allowed to stay in India indefinitely. He also emphasized the importance of continuing diplomatic talks with Bangladesh and highlighted the similarities between Indians and Pakistanis, underscoring the need for dialogue with Pakistan.
PTIFormer career diplomat, ex-union minister and Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Saturday night said that deposed Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina should be allowed to stay in India as long as she wants. Expressing happiness that Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri went to Dhaka last month and held discussions with the authorities there, Aiyar told PTI on the sidelines of the 16th Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival that the talks should be continuous and New Delhi needs to establish ministerial contacts with the interim government of Bangladesh.
About demands by Bangladesh to extradite Hasina, he said, “I hope we will never disagree that Sheikh Hasina has done a lot of good for us. I am glad she was given refuge. I think we should be her host as long as she wants, even if it is for all her life.”
Hasina, 77, has been living in India since August 5 when she fled the country following a massive student-led protest that toppled her 16-year regime.
The Congress leader said that it is true that minority Hindus in Bangladesh are being attacked, but mostly it is because they are supporters of Hasina.
“They (reports about attacks on Hindus) are true but exaggerated, because many of the conflicts are more about settlement of political differences,” he said.
Earlier during a question hour session, Aiyar said that Pakistanis are much like Indians, but only the accident of partition made them a different country.
“There exists much more difference in me as a Tamil and my wife as a Punjabi, than between her and a Pakistani Punjabi,” he said.
Taking a jibe at the Narendra Modi regime, the Congress leader said, “We have the courage to undertake surgical strike but this government does not have the courage to sit across the table with them.”
Pakistan is a country which spreads terror but it is also a victim of terror, Aiyar said.
“They (Pakistan) thought they could bring Taliban to power in Afghanistan, (but) today their single biggest threat is the Taliban in Afghanistan,” he said.
In a compliment to former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Aiyar said his single biggest achievement was to ensure that India talked to Pakistan on the back channel on what Gen Musharraf called the four-point agreement on Kashmir.
Singh also showed that it is possible to talk business with a military government, he said.
“It is suicidal for us to continue wearing Pakistan around our neck like the albatross. We should just talk to them as Manmohan Singh showed on the issue of Kashmir,” he said.
Aiyar earlier took part in a discussion on his recent book where he touched on issues like his relation with the Gandhi family, his tryst with the Congress party, his stint in the days at Cambridge and his commentary on the present situation in the country.
