MS Aiyar says Pakistani people India's biggest asset

February 12, 2024 12:19

No stranger to controversy, veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, on Sunday triggered a fresh row after coming out in praise of Pakistani people and terming them as the 'biggest asset of India', Dawn reported.

According to the Pakistan daily, Aiyar, while addressing an event in Lahore, said, "The Pakistanis, from my experience, have been the people who perhaps overreact to the other side. If we are friendly, they are over-friendly, and if we are hostile, they get overly hostile."

Speaking at the session titled 'Hijr Ki Rakh, Visaal Kay Phool, Indo-Pak affairs', on the second day of the Faiz Festival at Alhamra in Lahore, the former Union Minister shared his affection for Pakistan and its people, saying he had never been to a country where he had been welcomed with such open arms as he was in Pakistan. The former diplomat recalled his posting in Karachi as consul general, saying everyone looked after him and his wife.

"He has written about a number of incidents in his book, Memoirs of a Maverick, which shows Pakistan as a completely different country to what the Indians imagine. He said that 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," Dawn reported.

"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)," Dawn quoted Aiyar as saying at the event.

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