Friendly states: Indian MP sees a friendlier Pakistan

Pakistanis increasingly suffered themselves from violence by extremists.

WASHINGTON:

A senior lawmaker from India’s ruling Congress party said Pakistan’s historic animosity toward New Delhi was fading and called for his country to change its own attitudes.

Mani Shankar Aiyar, a diplomat turned politician known for his dovish views, said he saw a shift as Pakistanis who remember the subcontinent’s partition in 1947 – and defined their identity accordingly – grew older. Aiyar, speaking on a visit to Washington, said that Pakistanis had increasingly suffered themselves from violence by extremists and that the neighbouring country had economic and cultural interests in better ties.

“The visceral anti-Indianism of a previous generation is almost out of the picture now and will be totally out of the picture about the time that they lower me into the grave,” Aiyar, 72, said at the Atlantic Council think tank.

Aiyar said that “nothing similar has happened in India,” which has fought three full-fledged wars against its neighbor since independence.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2013.