• Latest
  • Trending

“Why must I toe Modi’s line on Pakistan?” asks Mani Shankar Aiyar

December 22, 2017
India’s New Parliament House dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Modi

India’s New Parliament House dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Modi

May 31, 2023
Flight

Sri Lanka plans to start Colombo-Istanbul direct flights

May 31, 2023
Exchange Rate

Foreign Currency Official Exchange Rates from Central Bank of Sri Lanka

May 31, 2023
Flight

World’s best airline for 2023 named by AirlineRatings.com

May 31, 2023
Source - Bloomberg

Sri Lanka rupee’s recent rise may face challenges as experts foresee a potential 16% drop ahead

May 31, 2023
Sri Lanka passports

Sri Lanka to revise penalty for overstaying foreigners

May 31, 2023
Lankan economists call for revival of road, rail bridge across Palk Strait

Lankan economists call for revival of road, rail bridge across Palk Strait

May 31, 2023
Sri Lanka seeks ’Superstar’ Rajinikanth’s help to boost tourism

Sri Lanka seeks ’Superstar’ Rajinikanth’s help to boost tourism

May 30, 2023
Sri Lanka passports

Sri Lanka to initiate new online passport application system

May 30, 2023
India makes available to Lanka credit facility of US$ 1 billion till March 2024

India makes available to Lanka credit facility of US$ 1 billion till March 2024

May 30, 2023
National Fuel Pass

Fuel quota for National Fuel Pass system increased

May 30, 2023
Cabinet nod to revive suspended Colombo LRT project

Cabinet nod to revive suspended Colombo LRT project

May 30, 2023
  • About Us
  • Advertisements
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
Thursday, June 1, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NewsIn.Asia
  • Home
  • Around South Asia
    • All
    • Afghanistan
    • Bangladesh
    • Bhutan
    • China
    • India
    • Maldives
    • Myanmar
    • Nepal
    • Pakistan
    • Sri Lanka
    India’s New Parliament House dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Modi

    India’s New Parliament House dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Modi

    Flight

    Sri Lanka plans to start Colombo-Istanbul direct flights

    Exchange Rate

    Foreign Currency Official Exchange Rates from Central Bank of Sri Lanka

    Source - Bloomberg

    Sri Lanka rupee’s recent rise may face challenges as experts foresee a potential 16% drop ahead

    Sri Lanka passports

    Sri Lanka to revise penalty for overstaying foreigners

    Lankan economists call for revival of road, rail bridge across Palk Strait

    Lankan economists call for revival of road, rail bridge across Palk Strait

    Sri Lanka seeks ’Superstar’ Rajinikanth’s help to boost tourism

    Sri Lanka seeks ’Superstar’ Rajinikanth’s help to boost tourism

    Sri Lanka passports

    Sri Lanka to initiate new online passport application system

    India makes available to Lanka credit facility of US$ 1 billion till March 2024

    India makes available to Lanka credit facility of US$ 1 billion till March 2024

  • World
    • All
    • Japan
    • Russia
    • United Kingdom
    • United States
    Flight

    World’s best airline for 2023 named by AirlineRatings.com

    Mars

    Mars bar plastic wrapper swapped for paper

    Recep Tayyip Erdogan

    Erdogan wins Turkish election, extending rule to third decade

    Lankan President’s Japan visit will have a salutary effect on relationship

    Lankan President’s Japan visit will have a salutary effect on relationship

    Joe Biden’s advisers say he doesn’t want to drag Pacific allies into ‘headlong clash’ between US and China

    Joe Biden’s advisers say he doesn’t want to drag Pacific allies into ‘headlong clash’ between US and China

    Cristiano Ronaldo

    Cristiano Ronaldo’s ‘Sajdah’ goal celebration goes viral

    US dollar notes

    ‘The mother of all crises.’ A US debt default would ricochet around the world

    Tsunami

    Scientists warn climate crisis could trigger giant tsunamis from Antarctica

    Emirates

    All Emirates passengers can now avail of free Wi-Fi connectivity onboard

  • Business
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
    • All
    • Books
    • Gaming
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Series
    Samahan

    Amitabh Bachchan expresses confidence for Sri Lankan herbal drink Samahan

    ‘Money Back Guarantee’ to mark cinematic debut of cricketing legend Wasim Akram and wife Shaniera

    ‘Money Back Guarantee’ to mark cinematic debut of cricketing legend Wasim Akram and wife Shaniera

    The gran who couldn’t: Indu Balachandran’s latest book is for readers of all ages

    The gran who couldn’t: Indu Balachandran’s latest book is for readers of all ages

    The Weeknd

    The Weeknd is the world’s most popular artist, Guinness World Records says

    Naatu Naatu has millions of views on YouTube and is a viral sensation over social media

    Watch: Oscar winning song Naatu Naatu

    Naatu Naatu has millions of views on YouTube and is a viral sensation over social media

    Indian song ‘Naatu Naatu’ from ‘RRR’ wins Oscar award for best song

    Naatu Naatu has millions of views on YouTube and is a viral sensation over social media

    Naatu Naatu: The RRR song primed for Oscar history

    Keanu Reeves

    11 of the best films to watch in March

    Netflix. Image credits - Souvik Banerjee @rswebsols / Unsplash

    Netflix cuts prices for subscribers in more than 30 countries

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Science
    • Travel
    Mars

    Mars bar plastic wrapper swapped for paper

    Emirates

    All Emirates passengers can now avail of free Wi-Fi connectivity onboard

    Exercise. Image credits - Victor Freitas @victorfreitas / Unsplash

    5 healthy habits that are easy to add to your day

    Global concern over babies born too soon

    Global concern over babies born too soon

    Nigerian chef Hilda Effiong Bassey

    Nigerian chef cooks for 100 hours in world record attempt

    Batik Air

    Batik Air reinstates daily services between Colombo and Kuala Lumpur

    Confucius tells us how to set ourselves free with ritual

    Confucius tells us how to set ourselves free with ritual

    Sri Lankans enjoy a walk in the beach

    My trip to Sri Lanka restored faith in fellow humans: Australian tourist

    The flavours of Sri Lanka

    The flavours of Sri Lanka

    The Issue of same-sex marriage reaches a critical juncture in India

    The Issue of same-sex marriage reaches a critical juncture in India

    Trending Tags

    • Golden Globes
    • Mr. Robot
    • MotoGP 2017
    • Climate Change
    • Flat Earth
  • Tech
    Whatsapp

    WhatsApp introduces new feature to edit sent messages

    WhatsApp

    WhatsApp will allow users to lock and hide conversations

    Whatsapp. Image credits - AARN GIRI / Unsplash

    WhatsApp announces multi-device feature to support more than one phone

    Apple store in Mumbai

    Apple says ‘Hello Mumbai’ at first India store launch

    WhatsApp

    WhatsApp to introduce five new features in 2023 

    OpenAI has created ChatGPT, a start-up focused on artificial intelligence and its potential use cases. (Image source: OpenAI)

    ChatGPT banned in Italy over privacy concerns

    Trending Tags

    • Sillicon Valley
    • Climate Change
    • Election Results
    • Flat Earth
    • Golden Globes
    • MotoGP 2017
    • Mr. Robot
  • Coronavirus
  • Videos
  • Home
  • Around South Asia
    • All
    • Afghanistan
    • Bangladesh
    • Bhutan
    • China
    • India
    • Maldives
    • Myanmar
    • Nepal
    • Pakistan
    • Sri Lanka
    India’s New Parliament House dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Modi

    India’s New Parliament House dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Modi

    Flight

    Sri Lanka plans to start Colombo-Istanbul direct flights

    Exchange Rate

    Foreign Currency Official Exchange Rates from Central Bank of Sri Lanka

    Source - Bloomberg

    Sri Lanka rupee’s recent rise may face challenges as experts foresee a potential 16% drop ahead

    Sri Lanka passports

    Sri Lanka to revise penalty for overstaying foreigners

    Lankan economists call for revival of road, rail bridge across Palk Strait

    Lankan economists call for revival of road, rail bridge across Palk Strait

    Sri Lanka seeks ’Superstar’ Rajinikanth’s help to boost tourism

    Sri Lanka seeks ’Superstar’ Rajinikanth’s help to boost tourism

    Sri Lanka passports

    Sri Lanka to initiate new online passport application system

    India makes available to Lanka credit facility of US$ 1 billion till March 2024

    India makes available to Lanka credit facility of US$ 1 billion till March 2024

  • World
    • All
    • Japan
    • Russia
    • United Kingdom
    • United States
    Flight

    World’s best airline for 2023 named by AirlineRatings.com

    Mars

    Mars bar plastic wrapper swapped for paper

    Recep Tayyip Erdogan

    Erdogan wins Turkish election, extending rule to third decade

    Lankan President’s Japan visit will have a salutary effect on relationship

    Lankan President’s Japan visit will have a salutary effect on relationship

    Joe Biden’s advisers say he doesn’t want to drag Pacific allies into ‘headlong clash’ between US and China

    Joe Biden’s advisers say he doesn’t want to drag Pacific allies into ‘headlong clash’ between US and China

    Cristiano Ronaldo

    Cristiano Ronaldo’s ‘Sajdah’ goal celebration goes viral

    US dollar notes

    ‘The mother of all crises.’ A US debt default would ricochet around the world

    Tsunami

    Scientists warn climate crisis could trigger giant tsunamis from Antarctica

    Emirates

    All Emirates passengers can now avail of free Wi-Fi connectivity onboard

  • Business
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
    • All
    • Books
    • Gaming
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Series
    Samahan

    Amitabh Bachchan expresses confidence for Sri Lankan herbal drink Samahan

    ‘Money Back Guarantee’ to mark cinematic debut of cricketing legend Wasim Akram and wife Shaniera

    ‘Money Back Guarantee’ to mark cinematic debut of cricketing legend Wasim Akram and wife Shaniera

    The gran who couldn’t: Indu Balachandran’s latest book is for readers of all ages

    The gran who couldn’t: Indu Balachandran’s latest book is for readers of all ages

    The Weeknd

    The Weeknd is the world’s most popular artist, Guinness World Records says

    Naatu Naatu has millions of views on YouTube and is a viral sensation over social media

    Watch: Oscar winning song Naatu Naatu

    Naatu Naatu has millions of views on YouTube and is a viral sensation over social media

    Indian song ‘Naatu Naatu’ from ‘RRR’ wins Oscar award for best song

    Naatu Naatu has millions of views on YouTube and is a viral sensation over social media

    Naatu Naatu: The RRR song primed for Oscar history

    Keanu Reeves

    11 of the best films to watch in March

    Netflix. Image credits - Souvik Banerjee @rswebsols / Unsplash

    Netflix cuts prices for subscribers in more than 30 countries

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Science
    • Travel
    Mars

    Mars bar plastic wrapper swapped for paper

    Emirates

    All Emirates passengers can now avail of free Wi-Fi connectivity onboard

    Exercise. Image credits - Victor Freitas @victorfreitas / Unsplash

    5 healthy habits that are easy to add to your day

    Global concern over babies born too soon

    Global concern over babies born too soon

    Nigerian chef Hilda Effiong Bassey

    Nigerian chef cooks for 100 hours in world record attempt

    Batik Air

    Batik Air reinstates daily services between Colombo and Kuala Lumpur

    Confucius tells us how to set ourselves free with ritual

    Confucius tells us how to set ourselves free with ritual

    Sri Lankans enjoy a walk in the beach

    My trip to Sri Lanka restored faith in fellow humans: Australian tourist

    The flavours of Sri Lanka

    The flavours of Sri Lanka

    The Issue of same-sex marriage reaches a critical juncture in India

    The Issue of same-sex marriage reaches a critical juncture in India

    Trending Tags

    • Golden Globes
    • Mr. Robot
    • MotoGP 2017
    • Climate Change
    • Flat Earth
  • Tech
    Whatsapp

    WhatsApp introduces new feature to edit sent messages

    WhatsApp

    WhatsApp will allow users to lock and hide conversations

    Whatsapp. Image credits - AARN GIRI / Unsplash

    WhatsApp announces multi-device feature to support more than one phone

    Apple store in Mumbai

    Apple says ‘Hello Mumbai’ at first India store launch

    WhatsApp

    WhatsApp to introduce five new features in 2023 

    OpenAI has created ChatGPT, a start-up focused on artificial intelligence and its potential use cases. (Image source: OpenAI)

    ChatGPT banned in Italy over privacy concerns

    Trending Tags

    • Sillicon Valley
    • Climate Change
    • Election Results
    • Flat Earth
    • Golden Globes
    • MotoGP 2017
    • Mr. Robot
  • Coronavirus
  • Videos
NewsIn.Asia
No Result
View All Result
Home Uncategorized

“Why must I toe Modi’s line on Pakistan?” asks Mani Shankar Aiyar

Editor by Editor
December 22, 2017
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 8 mins read
2 0
A A
Share on WhatsApp

New Delhi, December 23 (NDTV.Com): Spokespersons for the Bhara­tiya Janata Party have been asserting on TV screens that I should have taken the government’s permission before hosting an old Pakistani friend of mine to dinner. Why should I seek anyone’s permission to host a dinner party — even if that friend is a Pakistani?

Why cannot I invite friends and colleagues to talk about Pakistan with a distinguished Pakistani? Why must I toe Modi’s line on Pakistan? What gives the government a monopoly of national opinion on our neighbor? Does anyone who does not believe that the Prime Minister is the nation’s sole fount of wisdom become liable to the charge of treachery? Do I not have a right to privacy? Do my guests not have such a right?

The BJP responds that this was not just some dinner party, it amounted to sleeping with the enemy. Indeed, the Prime Minister has darkly hinted that I was hiring a contract killer (“supari”) to get him. Invoking a fake Facebook post, he slyly let slip that the dinner was a “secret” conclave to hatch a “conspiracy” with the Pakistanis to make — horror of horrors — a Gujarati Muslim the chief minister of Gujarat.

ADVERTISEMENT

Utter rubbish, total balderdash, but a nasty move to establish a salience between Pakistan and Indian Muslims to polarise a crucial election.

Well, I don’t consider Muslims or Pakistanis my enemies, especially a Pakistani Muslim like Khurshid Kasuri, who I have known since we were 20-year-old undergraduates at the same Cambridge college some 56 years ago. It was a friendship that was renewed when the founder-President of the BJP, and then Janata Party Foreign Minister of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee, chose me to be the first-ever Consul General of India in Karachi (1978-82).

Did he choose me to go to Karachi to spew at the Pakistanis? Atal Behari-ji would invariably take his seat in the House whenever I rose to speak on Pakistan. For unlike the present incumbent, he was not paranoid about Pakistan. A true democrat, he was interested in understanding other perspectives on that country.

I flew to Islamabad in Dec 1978 from the home of our ambassador in Abu Dhabi, Hamid Ansari, a brilliant diplomat and an engaging companion with whom I had served a little earlier in Brussels. He was among my closest fri­ends in the Foreign Service and I ap­­po­inted him chairman of the Oil Dip­lo­macy Committee when I was Petroleum Minister. Destiny had kissed him on the brow to rise for 10 long years (2007-2017) to the second-highest constitutio­nal position in our land: Vice President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Invaluable in his penetrating insights into the Pak psyche, he has guided me over the years through the maze of Pakistan’s domestic politics. He introduced me to his wife’s relatives in Karachi. Hamid Ansari was second only to Doctor-sahib (former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh) among the distinguished guests at my dinner.

The morning after I reached Islamabad to be briefed by my Ambassador before taking up my new assignment, I heard the Ambassador speaking on the phone to Khurshid Kasuri. I slipped him a note on which I had scribbled that Khurshid was an old friend of mine. He passed on the phone to me, and I could hear the joy in Khurshid’s voice as he welcomed me to Pakistan, insisting that I proceed to Karachi only after visiting Lahore.

That was a tempting invitation as I was born in Lahore. I agreed, subject to Khurshid driving me straight from the airport to my old home at 44, Lakshmi Mansions.

Khurshid agreed and my Ambassa­dor indulgently let me take that circuitous route to my new posting.

That Ambassador, Katyayani Shankar Bajpai, was no soft-heart like me. He has always had a hard, tough understanding of Pakistan, untouched by any of the starry-eyed romanticism that tinges my view of that country. He was at the time in almost daily touch with Barrister Khurshid Kasuri, monitoring developments in the then ongoing Lahore High Court trial of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

Now nearly 90 years old, Ambassador K. Shankar Bajpai was another of my valued guests.

On my landing in Lahore, Khurshid Kasuri picked me up and drove me straight to the apartment where my family had lived till Partition, now taken over by a medical doctor who had been a student in London while Khurshid and I were cutting our academic teeth in Cambridge.

I have since been several times to Lakshmi Mansions (does Modi know it is still called that even seven decades after Partition?), taking my wife and children with me so often that the old chowkidar lets me in even when Dr Malik is not at home.

Most touching of all was when I visited Pakistan as India’s Petroleum Minister to initiate talks on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. The Residents Welfare Association of Lakshmi Mansions (including writer Sa’adat Hassan Manto’s family) organised a welcome reception for me and Dr Malik asked me to send him a blow-up of my parents’ photograph so that he could, in respectful tribute to their memory, hang it on the walls of their first marital home. Is this the enemy?

In 2003, then president Pervez Musharraf appointed Khurshid Kasuri as his Foreign Minister. Kasuri immediately embarked on the most determined exercise in India-Pakistan history to resolve the Kashmir issue.

The parameters for that bold initiative were set by Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Between them, they agreed that there would be no exchange of territory or people, but an attempt to “render the LoC irrelevant” to the ordinary lives of ordinary Kashmiris on either side of the Line of Control.

The task of negotiating the deal was entrusted on the back-channel to a Pakistani civil servant, Tariq Aziz, and Ambassador Sati Lambah of India (yes, Sati too was my guest at the Kasuri dinner). Sati was not only my Islamabad counterpart through all the three years I served in Karachi, he went on to head the Pakistan division at headquarters, returned to Islam­abad both as Deputy High Commis­sioner and High Com­missioner, and climaxed his high-flying life in diplomacy as the longest-ever serving PM’s Special Envoy: nine uninterrupted years as Doctor sahib’s most trusted aide on Pakistan. No one knows Pakistan better than Sati Lambah.

The kick-off point for the Musharraf-Manmohan dialogue was Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Jan 2004 visit to Islamabad, accompanied by his Foreign Minister, Yashwant Sinha (who had also accepted my invitation but could not attend because he was detained by the Maharashtra police in Akola).

On the Pakistan side, it was Kasuri who supervised and guided the back-channel conversations that brought more progress than ever before on the vexed question of Kashmir. It would have been concluded but for Musharraf’s domestic fracas with the judiciary that finally ended his regime.

Sohail Mahmood, Pakistan envoy in India and Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, former Pakistan Foreign Minister

Sohail Mahmood (left), Pakistan’s High Commissioner in India, and Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, the former foreign minister, were among the invitees to a dinner hosted by Mani Shankar Aiyar. The Indian prime minister described the dinner as a plot to undermine his party’s prospects in the Gujarat elections.

Whenever the dialogue is resumed, the four-point formula will surely constitute the point of departure.

On the Indian side, Dr Manmohan Singh’s Foreign Minister at the commencement of the back-channel talks was Natwar Singh. So I invited him too, bearing particularly in mind that not only had he been my boss in Islamabad for most of my term in Pakistan, but also because of his immortal comment to the Pakistan press on the ghastly Moradabad riots after Eid in 1980: “I feel humiliated as an Indian and diminished as a human being.”

As former foreign minister, Salman Khurshid had gone with Atal-ji to Geneva in the mid-90s to give a fitting reply to Pakistan’s canards in the Human Rights sub-commission, I invited him too. Alas, he mixed up the dates and turned up only the next day. But the other Salman — Salman Haider — former foreign secretary and architect of the 1997 “Composite Dialogue” between India and Pakistan that has persisted over 20 turbulent years (its name, but not its essence, changed by the BJP, as is their wont) came, listened, spoke and heartily ate.

Present too were former High Commissioners Sharat Sabharwal and T.C.A. Raghavan. Raghavan’s masterpiece, The People Next Door, published a few months ago, has quickly become the defining narrative of what Raghavan calls in his subtitle, The Curious History, of our relations with Pakistan.

We also had two former heads of the Pakistan division: Chinmaya Gharekhan, who headed the division when I was in Karachi, and then went on to become principal foreign policy adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office to two prime ministers, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, before winding up his career as the longest-ever serving represen­tative of India to the UN.

He was later Dr Manmohan Singh’s special envoy for West Asia. He is a frequent contributor on foreign policy to several journals, including The Indian Express and The Hindu.

Gharekhan, a conspirator? Ghare­khan, a subversive? Modi-ji, why not che­­­ck with him? Know what? Not­with­standing his name, Gharekhan is not a Muslim, his surname is a title bestowed centuries ago on his family. Indeed, he is a fellow-Gujarati! Khem chhe?

The other head of division present was M.K. Bhadrakumar, former deputy high commissioner to Pakistan. No one in India, absolutely no one, is engaged as deeply as he is with Central Asia, West Asia and our neighbourhood and views all foreign policy in the perspective of great power geopolitics and geo-strategies.

After retirement, he has emerged as the most prolific writer on foreign policy in Indian journalism. Far from stoo­ping to low conspiracy, Bhadrakumar’s published view is that the talk at the Kasuri dinner amounted to little more than “airy nothings”.

We had two professional journalists of long standing: Prem Shankar Jha, former editor of The Hindustan Times, and Rahul Khushwant Singh, former editor of The Khaleej Times, Dubai, and former resident editor of The Indian Express, Chandigarh — blameless except for being stained by association with me since our school days!

Besides, we were graced by the participation of an outstanding defence analyst, Col Ajai Shukla (retd), a soldier and intellectual who understands defence matters better than anyone else in the public realm.

I rounded off my list of invitees with none other and none less than the former army chief, General Deepak Kapoor. I wanted him in so that Kasuri would not get away without first hearing an authoritative armed forces voice. This is the highly-distinguished, highly-decorated officer whose patriotism has been impugned by a prime minister as having attended a “secret” conclave in my home to take out a “supari” on Narendra-bhai Modi.

Even my acerbic tongue cannot find the right word to condemn this outrage.

And, oh yes, of course, there was the newly-appointed Pakistan High Commissioner, learning the ropes, more silent than the Silent Valley, deferring to his former boss, Khurshid Kasuri.

We had nothing to hide. We had come together to brief Khurshid on Indian perspectives on Pakistan because Kasuri is arguably the best friend India has in in­­fluential political circles in that country.

We also wanted to hear him, as an articulate, well-informed and India-friendly interlocutor. He has, of course, been out of office for the best part of a decade and is unlikely to make it again. So the discussion was informal and certainly not “official”. All of us, without exception, were “has-beens”.

There was absolutely nothing “secret” or “secretive” about the get-together. Indeed, the place was crawling with Modi’s intelligence agents. Khurshid Kasuri is related to the Rampur family.

The dates of the wedding in their family had been determined without reference to the election in Gujarat. My invitations had gone out a month earlier and reminders had been issued both by email and mobile phones. Doubtless, both were tapped.

We talked and dined convivially for about three hours, my wife proving to our Pakistani guests that Indian nihari and biryani are quite as good as in Pakistan! Some BJP spokesman misunderstood and claimed we had sat and conspired till 3am. There was no conspiracy. There was no mention of Gujarat. We were just talking Pakistan with a Pakistani guest and friend.

It is shameful that baseless allegations have been flung from public platforms by no less a personage than the present prime minister. How, in a democracy, can the right of any citizen to express views contrary to those of the government be questioned as Modi and his cohort are doing? Are we not drifting towards becoming a police state?

I know Modi hates me. But my party so distrusts me that I was perhaps the only Congressman of 25 years standing who was not sent to Gujarat for the campaign. Yet, Modi’s invective was reserved for me as if the battle for Gujarat was between him and me.

Towards the end of my Rajya Sabha term, I asked him a question on the floor of the upper house. He brushed off my enquiry, adding, quite gratuitously, that I would soon be joining the ranks of the “bhule-bisre” — the forgotten and the destitute. That indeed would have been my fate — except for Narendra-bhai Modi. He has given me more publicity than I could have garnered for myself in three lives. Thank you, Prime Minister.

(Mani Shankar Aiyar is former Congress MP, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha).Courtesy NDTV.com

 

Related Posts

Why is G20 the most potent forum for building a community of shared destiny of humankind?
Around The World

Why is G20 the most potent forum for building a community of shared destiny of humankind?

May 25, 2023
The geopolitics of sanctions
Uncategorized

The geopolitics of sanctions

April 30, 2023
Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka calls on the Mahanayakes
Diplomacy

Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka calls on the Mahanayakes

April 27, 2023
Tamils flag escalating attacks on Hindu temples in northern Sri Lanka 
Religion

Tamils flag escalating attacks on Hindu temples in northern Sri Lanka 

April 23, 2023
Importance of “deep sea” biodiversity preservation for Sri Lanka
Around The World

Importance of “deep sea” biodiversity preservation for Sri Lanka

March 22, 2023
Indian aid helps Lanka print school textbooks
Around South Asia

Indian aid helps Lanka print school textbooks

March 11, 2023
  • Electricity

    Power cut schedule for today in Sri Lanka: Uninterrupted power supply

    60241 shares
    Share 24119 Tweet 15051
  • Registration open for National Fuel Pass

    6641 shares
    Share 2694 Tweet 1645
  • Foreign Currency Official Exchange Rates from Central Bank of Sri Lanka

    1855 shares
    Share 749 Tweet 461
  • WATCH : Yohani’s first live performance in India

    790 shares
    Share 329 Tweet 192
  • Power interruption schedule released: Check your area power cut time

    742 shares
    Share 320 Tweet 176
  • About Us
  • Advertisements
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact

© 2022 All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Around South Asia
    • Afghanistan
    • Bangladesh
    • Bhutan
    • China
    • India
    • Maldives
    • Myanmar
    • Nepal
    • Pakistan
    • Sri Lanka
  • Around The World
  • Breaking News
  • Business
    • Exchange
  • Climate Change
  • Governance
    • Crime
    • Diplomacy
    • Defense
    • Human Rights
    • Politics
    • Strategic Affairs
  • Lifestyle
    • Books
    • Entertainment
      • Arts
      • Cinema
      • Gaming
      • Music
      • Movie
      • Series
      • TV
    • Health
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Travel
  • Culture
    • Ethnicity
    • Gender
  • Development news
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Environment
  • Coronavirus
  • History
  • National
  • Offbeat
    • Media
    • Music and arts across South Asia
  • Recommended
    • Headlines
    • Highlights
    • Top Picture
    • Top Story
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Cricket
      • LPL
      • IPL
    • Tennis
    • Formula 1
    • NBA
  • Tech
    • Instagram
  • United Nations
  • Weather
  • World
    • Japan
    • Russia
    • United States
  • Videos

© 2022 All rights reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

eskisehir escort -

https://www.vudols.com/

- Sağlık Personeli - mersin escort - Antalya korsan taksi -
ip booter