Former Indian minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, who also served 26 years of his life in the Indian foreign services, has said that Pakistan is not a failing or failed state, and there remains a huge constituency for friendship which we need to work with, as opposed to responding to the constituency of hatred.
“Pakistan is an irremovable geographical fact. Pakistan is also an irreversible historical fact,” he said while addressing ultimate celebrity conference in Goa where politicians, intellectuals, authors, business tycoons, actors and others have gathered at the Grand Hyatt as part of the three-day Thinkfest conclave.
Co-organised by Tehelka and Newsweek, this haute version brings together an eclectic and intriguing range of A-list names, from Nobel peace prize winning Leymah Gbowee to Omar Abdullah to Pervez Hoodbhoy to Siddharth Muherjee to Arvind Kejriwal.
Scientist, essayist and political-defence analyst Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, who heads the Physics Department at the Quaid-e-Azam University, said Pakistan was in deep trouble, as this country was losing its South Asian roots. “We have to accept in Pakistan that the two-nation theory has run its course. Moving forward, our idea of the nation has to be more inclusive,” he said.
Hoodbhoy said that the isolation of Pakistanis and Indians strengthen the constituencies of hate. Aiyar outlined following steps that include return to the Musharraf-Manmohan proposal to create a borderless Kashmir — where the Line of Control is rendered irrelevant – as a precursor to a borderless subcontinent.
He said both the nations should agree to maintain uninterrupted and uninterruptable dialogue that will remain unbroken and regular, irrespective of attacks or any other calamity. They should introduce a visa regime similar to Nepal and remove all restrictions of pilgrimages.
Another remedy is to ensure a full and free media exchange, including TV channels and newspapers and not limited to movies. An open investment regime without any barriers to trade, standing together on the international stage to push for the expansion of the UN Security Council and launch a joint initiative for global nuclear disarmament.
Sounds unrealistic, but Aiyar is quick to remind the gathering that the current European Union would have sounded as impossible a hundred years ago. “Much like the French and Germans who fought and killed each other for centuries, we too can live together in South Asian Union,” he suggested.
Former Indian minister suggests South Asian Union
