It will be in the interest of India to engage with Pakistan as living in hostility with the neighbour is not in our interest, said former diplomat-turned-politician Mani Shankar Aiyar who called upon the country’s decision makers to put on their thinking caps and look for new ways of reviving the dialogue.
In a free-wheeling discussion revolving around his life at the of the Festival of Ideas, hosted by NewsX, TSG and India News that are a part of the ITV Network here on Thursday, the former diplomat rooted for engaging with Pakistan – with the discussion being structured in whatever way we want – as for nine years we have not been in touch with them and nothing has been engaged from this strategy.
“Why don’t we have the guts to sit across the table and talk to them?” said Aiyar, who had even served as a diplomat in Pakistan.
Rooting for greater people-to-people interaction between Indians and Paksitanis, Aiyar recalled a dinner he and his wife had at the home of a former PoW Pakistani and how his wife wondered if they were really present in an “enemy country”.
“The question still haunts me even though I have been out of Pakistan for 40 years,” said Aiyar.
He even called the Pakistani people, who like to watch Indian movies and are warm, as the biggest asset for India in that country.
He called himself a maverick, as he describes in his new book “Memoirs of a Maverick”, and said he has no regrets. “I am a maverick as I do thinks about issues the way he wants to and not the way others do.”
Leaving a career in diplomacy for politics was on such decision that he cited as his desire to living life on his terms.
Describing his political innings as a “half life”, he expressed satisfaction over entering politics at 50 and becoming a Cabinet minister. “Of course, now I am no one, but I have no regrets,” he said, describing himself a “secular fundamentalist” who had many opponents within his own party.
Thanking Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi for their patronage during his political career, Aiyar said Rajiv had warned me before entering politics that the system may not allow him to make me a minister. “I joined despite the warning,” he said.
Aiyar also justified his switch from diplomacy to politics as his opportunity to live his childhood dream. “I was only 10 when the first general election was held. Since then I had a dream of joining politics and Rajiv Gandhi gave me this golden opportunity,” he said.